For centuries, scholars puzzled over the hieroglyphs they found carved onto ancient Egyptian ruins, tablets, and papyri. But a unique discovery would finally help unlock their meaning.
In 1799, as the French military invaded Egypt, an officer encountered a curious stone on the outskirts of Rashid, or Rosetta. It was inscribed with three different portions of text: Egyptian hieroglyphs, which is the oldest Egyptian script, dating back some 5,000 years; Demotic Egyptian, which is a later derivative of Egyptian; and Ancient Greek. It seemed that each section was a rough translation of the others, meaning the stone presented an unprecedented key to unlocking hieroglyphs. English troops soon intercepted the stone and brought it to the British Museum in 1802, where it became one of the most popular displays.
Various European scholars— including Johan Åkerblad, Thomas Young, and Jean-François Champollion— worked to decode the Egyptian scripts. There were some crucial initial clues. The Greek section included the names of royal figures, while certain areas in the Demotic section had bracket-like forms and some hieroglyphic sections were encircled. Could these portions encode the same royal names? Åkerblad matched some characters up and, in 1802, successfully decoded the royal names and some simple words, like “much” and “temples” in the Demotic script. This led Åkerblad to believe that all Demotic signs were alphabetic, meaning each letter represented a discrete sound— much like in English.
Thomas Young, in contrast, suspected that some of the Demotic signs were logograms— that is, symbols encoding entire words or phrases. For example, he believed a sun disk with a stroke indicated the sun or sun god. Around 1814, he deciphered some recurring Demotic words like “pharaoh” and “Egypt.” Young also had the critical insight that Demotic was a later iteration of hieroglyphs. And, studying the hieroglyphic text, Young successfully decoded the royal name “Ptolemy.” But he still believed the prevailing misconception that most hieroglyphs were logograms representing ideas— not sounds.
Using his knowledge of other scripts and languages, like the Egyptian Coptic he’d learned from a Coptic Christian priest, Champollion realized that most encircled hieroglyphs were phonetic. They represented sounds: the Egyptian vulture, an “a”; the three fox skins, “m-s”, and so on. This finally allowed him to read the Egyptian names “Ramses” and “Thutmose.” Cross-referencing other hieroglyphic texts, Champollion confirmed that many hieroglyphs beyond the encircled names were phonetic. And on September 14th, 1822, he ran to his brother’s house and declared the breakthrough. Later, Champollion determined that beyond alphabetic and logographic hieroglyphs, some were classifiers that sorted words into categories, like occupations, plants, and abstract concepts.
The first complete translation of the Rosetta Stone was finally published in the early 1850s. So, what did it actually say? The inscription was marked 196 BCE. It honored the first anniversary of 13-year-old Pharaoh Ptolemy V’s coronation and outlined a series of benefits for the Egyptian priesthood. The inscriptions described laws for maintaining temples and performing rituals, like the burial of sacred animals. At the time, Egypt was a multicultural society. Two main languages were spoken: Ancient Greek, brought by Egypt’s conquerors, and Demotic Egyptian, the native language. Hieroglyphs represented Middle Egyptian, a language that was already antiquated but may have been included to convey a sense of authority. The decree was copied onto many stones and erected in temples. However, as regimes shifted, edifices were deconstructed and reconstructed. Some scholars think the Rosetta Stone was originally placed in a temple in Sais. It’s unclear how it ended up 80 kilometers away, but it may have been transported up the Nile after the late 15th century.
Once deciphered, hieroglyphs helped overturn misconceptions. Subterranean chambers within Egyptian pyramids were once thought to be secret sites of priestly initiation and study. But it was finally confirmed that pyramids were tombs housing sacred preparations for the afterlife. Soon, entire texts could be translated that showcased the complexity of ancient Egyptian religious compositions.
Experts are still decoding new hieroglyphs as they arise and untangling instances of tricky grammar and wordplay. The Rosetta Stone helped illuminate one of the world’s oldest written languages and the vibrant history it emerged from. And yet, the pillaged artifact remains far from its provenance today.
