The Discovery Of The Rosetta Stone Unlocked A Whole New Understanding Of Egyptian History

220 years ago in 1799, a French soldier discovered a black basalt slab near the town of Rosetta, some 35 miles north of Alexandria, Egypt. The slab, which was inscribed in three different scripts, would turn out to unlock a whole new understanding of ancient Egyptian history.

The Rosetta Stone is a rock stele, found in 1799, inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V.
Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

During Napoleon Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign in the late 18th century, a soldier named Pierre-Francois Bouchard came across the stone. Bonaparte, at the time, had invaded Egypt the year before and took with him a team of scholars and archaeologists to seize important artifacts for France. It was only in his possession for a few years before the British defeated Napoleon and took the stone for themselves.

As a result, the stone has been deciphered over time by English and French scholars, notably Englishman Thomas Young and French Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion. The stone, which was four-feet long and two-and-a-half feet wide, was inscribed in Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and Egyptian demotic. The inscriptions were written by priests honoring the former king of Egypt, Ptolemy V, from the second century B.C.

The Greek passage revealed that all three scripts were identical in meaning. Using his knowledge of Greek, Champollion was able to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Prior to the discovery of the stone, the pictures of objects and sounds that made up Egyptian hieroglyphs were misunderstood by scholars who studied ancient Egyptian culture and history.

The stone is believed to have been erected following the coronation of King Ptolemy V. The text itself was a written decree that established the divine cult of their new ruler. Issued in 196 B.C., the Rosetta Stone re-established the rule of Ptolemaic kings over Egypt. It was a tumultuous time in Egyptian history. Ptolemy V ascended the throne at the age of five after his parents were murdered in what was believed to be a conspiracy. The conspirators allegedly ruled at Ptolemy V's guardians until a revolt broke out and they were lynched in Alexandria.