Rosetto

The History of the Rosetto Stone

Introduction -a la Wikipedia

The Rosetta Stone is a Ptolemaic era stele inscribed with the same passage of writing in two Egyptian language scripts (hieroglyphic and demotic) and in classical Greek. It was created in 196 BC, discovered by the French in 1799 at Rosetta, a harbor on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt, and translated in 1822 by Frenchman Jean-François Champollion. Comparative translation of the stone assisted in understanding many previously undecipherable examples of hieroglyphic writing. The text of the Rosetta Stone is a decree from Ptolemy V, describing the repealing of various taxes and instructions to erect statues in temples.

The Stone is 114.4 centimeters high at its tallest point, 72.3 centimeters wide, and 27.9 centimeters thick (45.04 in. high, 28.5 in. wide, 10.9 in. thick). Weighing approximately 760 kg (1,676 pounds), it was originally thought to be granite or basalt but is currently described as granodiorite and is dark grey-pinkish in color. The Stone has been kept at the British Museum in London since 1802

Decrees

The Rosetta Stone is a well-known example from a series of decrees, the Ptolemaic Decrees, issued by the Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt from 205 BC to 30 BC. Those were the Decree of Canopus by Ptolemy III, Decree of Memphis (Ptolemy IV) (The Memphis Stele) by Ptolemy IV, and the Rosetta Stone decree by Ptolemy V.

Copies of the Ptolemaic Decrees were erected in several temple courtyards, as the decrees specified. The decree of the Rosetta Stone is also on the Stele of Noubarya and in the text engraved in the Temple of Philae. The Stele of Noubarya was found in the early 1880s, and was used to complete lines missing from the Rosetta Stone.

Translation

In 1814, the Briton Thomas Young finished translating the enchorial (demotic) text, and began work on the hieroglyphic alphabet. From 1822 to 1824, Jean-François Champollion greatly expanded on this work, and he is known as the translator of the Rosetta Stone. Champollion could read both Greek and Coptic, and figured out what the seven Demotic signs in Coptic were. By looking at how these signs were used in Coptic, he worked out what they meant. Then he traced the Demotic signs back to hieroglyphic signs. By working out what some hieroglyphs stood for, he made educated guesses about what the other hieroglyphs meant.

In 1858, the Philomathean Society of the University of Pennsylvania published the first complete English translation of the Rosetta Stone. Three undergraduate members, Charles R Hale, S Huntington Jones, and Henry Morton, made the translation. The translation quickly sold out two editions and was internationally hailed as a monumental work of scholarship.