Page 22 - July18LivingSCCLmagazine

While fighting Egyptians and looting their
country of its precious antiquities,
Napoleon’s soldiers turned up one of the
world’s most important archaeological discoveries: the
Rosetta Stone. The date of discovery was July 9, 1799. Yet, to this day, two countries still heatedly
debate ownership of the priceless artifact.
For over 1,500 years, scholars had been unable to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics, a script used by the country’s priests, and much of the country’s ancient history was lost. The Rosetta Stone became the key to deciphering the birds, snakes, and symbols used in the rich trove of writings found in Egypt’s temples, tablets, and ruins.
The black, granite-like stone, though broken, was inscribed with an almost identical message written in three languages: Egyptian hieroglyphics, a cursive form of ancient writing called Egyptian demotic, and ancient Greek. Although scholars knew the Greek language, it still took two decades before they were able to translate the hieroglyphics.
The message on the Rosetta Stone consists, in part, of the “Third Memphis Decree,” issued by priests in 196 BCE. The stone was one of a series of stelae, or carved stones, placed around Egypt to laud its ruler, a Greek named Ptolemy V. The message praised the young ruler’s achievements in a battle that had pitted his troops against Egyptian nationalists opposed to Greek rule. Never mind that Ptolemy was only twelve when priests carved the stone to celebrate his pre-teen achievements.
22 LIVING @ SCCL, July 2018
Writing in Archaeology magazine, Jacob Urbanus, a contributing editor, calls the Rosetta text “propaganda.”
The Stolen Loot
In the latter part of the eighteenth century, both France and England sent expeditions into Egypt. Both sought trade contacts, and the British also sought to remove the French and to better protect their own trading interests in the region. In ensuing battles, the British led the ruling Ottomans against French forces.
In the Egyptian town of El-Rashid, a French soldier came across an intriguing engraved stone—what
later would be called the Rosetta Stone. The soldier’s commander, suspecting the stone’s value, snatched it up with the intent of taking it home to France. But that was not to be.
Eventually, the Ottomans and English defeated the French. The Ottomans then awarded the British all artifacts the French had stolen in Egypt. The
The Rosetta Stone
A Tale of the Spoils of War
By Jo Ann Koffman
The Rosetta Stone, three feet eight inches high and now more than 2,000 years old, has held a place of honor in the British Museum since 1802.
These Egyptian hieroglyphics were a complete mystery to scholars until the stone's discovery.