What 40-inch piece of black basalt unlocked the secret of Egyptian hieroglyphics?

starry

The Rosetta stone. Jan 17 03, 2:35 PM

sequoianoir

Rosetta Stone, black basalt slab bearing an inscription that was the key to the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphics and thus to the foundation of modern Egyptology. The Rosetta stone was found by French troops in 1799 near the town of Rashid (Rosetta) in Lower Egypt. The stone was inscribed in 196 BC with a decree praising the Egyptian king Ptolemy V. Because the inscription appears in three scripts, hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek, scholars were able to decipher the hieroglyphic and demotic versions by comparing them with the Greek version. http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/~golds09/Assignment2.htm Jan 17 03, 2:37 PM