Quickbytes Explanation
The Rosetta Stone
Question
Why was the Rosetta Stone important to the modern study of ancient Egypt?
Reveal Answer
Answer
Its parallel texts helped scholars decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Quick Explanation
The Rosetta Stone is a fragment of a decree issued in 196 BCE during the Ptolemaic Period. The same decree was written in hieroglyphic Egyptian, Demotic Egyptian, and Ancient Greek. Because scholars could read Greek, comparison among the scripts helped Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion make major breakthroughs in deciphering ancient Egyptian writing.
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What Is the Rosetta Stone?
The Rosetta Stone is a surviving fragment of a larger stone stela. Its inscription records a decree issued by a council of priests in 196 BCE during the reign of the young Ptolemy V.
This date is much later than the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. Egypt was then ruled by the Greek-speaking Ptolemaic dynasty established after Alexander the Great’s conquests.
One Decree, Three Scripts
The decree appears in three forms of writing: Egyptian hieroglyphs, Egyptian Demotic script, and Ancient Greek. The versions communicate essentially the same official message, making the monument exceptionally useful for decipherment.
Why Greek Was the Key
European scholars in the early nineteenth century could already read Ancient Greek, but the ability to read hieroglyphs had been lost. By comparing names and passages across the inscriptions, researchers could test ideas about how Egyptian signs represented sounds and words.
Young and Champollion
Thomas Young made important progress identifying phonetic signs in royal names. Jean-François Champollion then demonstrated more fully that hieroglyphs could represent the sounds of the Egyptian language, drawing on comparisons among inscriptions and his knowledge of Coptic.
Why It Changed Egyptology
The breakthrough allowed scholars to read enormous numbers of previously inaccessible Egyptian texts. Tomb inscriptions, temple records, official decrees, letters, literature, and other documents could now contribute directly to the modern study of ancient Egypt.