The Rosetta Stone's Role In The Deciphering Of Ancient Egypt

The Rosetta Stone was found in a small delta village called Rashid which is known to Europeans as Rosetta. The stone is a black slab that is now called granodiorite. The stone is over a meter high, 28cm thick and weighs over three-quarters of a ton. On the face of the stone there are three scripts engraved onto it: Greek, demotic and hieroglyphs. Interestingly enough, upon translation the three scripts are found to say the same thing but with slight variations. Napoleon’s army originally found the stone but surrendered it to the British once being defeated at the Battle of the Nile by Admiral Nelson in 1801. The stone being taken during war does not give the British the right to keep it. The stone should be returned to Egypt due to simple ethical reasoning. If Britain were to hand the stone over to Egypt, this would not be the first time war spoils have been returned to their rightful owner. Agreements have been made

Ancient Egypt is said to be one of the most successful of the ancient civilizations. This entire nation, based around the Nile river, was able to develop in areas such as mathematics, medicine, and astronomy that others so far hadn’t been able to do. They adapted to their environment and used the Nile river to their advantage, using it as a trading route, a means of protection from invaders, and a very successful system of irrigation system for their agriculture. The Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt (the Delta and Valley) is what started the evolution of the ancient Egyptian civilization. Being a united kingdom with a single, powerful ruler, allowed them to have a long and successful reign over the land,

The Rosetta Stone was discovered in July 1799 at Rosetta (now el-Rashid) in Egypt (Cracking Codes 20). Pierre Francois Xavier Bouchard, a soldier in Napoleon’s army, discovered the stone while digging the foundations of an addition to a fort (Cracking Codes 20). He recognized the stone as part of a stele, or slab marking government notices or territory (Cracking Codes 20). Bouchard reported the discovery to a French general, Jacques-Francois Menou, who had the stone excavated and cleaned (Cracking Codes 21). News of the discovery spread quickly, but no one was able to immediately decipher the writings (Cracking Codes 21). Upon Napoleon’s defeat, the stone became property of the British under terms of the Treaty of Alexandria in 1801(Cracking Codes 22).

Ancient Egyptian Culture (Step Pyramid): About 4,500 years ago a massive, cake-shaped, wonder took shape in Ancient Egypt. That wonder was the first pyramid in Egypt to ever be built it was called The Step Pyramid at Sakkara. The step pyramid had been built by a Grand Vizier and Imhotep ( a god known for his intelligence), they used stone, white limestone, and over a million tons of rock! The step pyramid was finally completed in 2,700 B.C. It stands as the oldest building on the face of earth. However something even older is kept inside, King Zoser. Today it still stands and remains one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world

The Old kingdom had Great pyramids and amazing hieroglyphs grew from this time period. Hieroglyphs were a formal writing style that changes the ways of today’s communications and the pyramids structure for today’s architecture. The Ancient Egyptians were remarkably smart and their communication is superb on how they keep their rolls in everyday life. From the death to the writing of the ancient Egyptians will be explored and how they change the perspectives of people in our generation and how it still keeps us on the move with their inventions.

The researcher learned that the Rosetta stone is one of the most important artifacts of the Egyptians. It was written in three ancient scripts and is located at the British museum in London.

Why ask why the Great Pyramid was built? Because it is the most massive building on the planet, at least twice the volume and thirty times the mass of the Empire State Building. Because it is aligned to the true cardinal points of the compass even though no compass is known to have existed at its time of construction. Because its masonry which weighs up to seventy tons is joined to the fiftieth of an inch. Because its casing stones were polished to the standard of modern optical work. Why was such an enormous undertaking, combined with such incredible accuracy, deemed necessary for the construction of a mere tomb and funerary ornament to a dead king who never occupied it?

One of the most significant discoveries of the use of cryptography in ancient times was the Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799 by Napoleon’s army while digging fortifications while stranded in ancient Egypt. The stone told...

The Rosetta Stone was found in the town of Rosetta and sent to French scholars in Alexandria during the summer of 1799 (Giblin 23). This black, measuring 112 by 76 stone found while the soldiers in the town were destroying a citadel was unprecedented because it had three different languages on it, the only understood one being Greek (Silet 1). The three languages on the stone were, as stated, Greek, the common Egyptian demotic, and 14 lines of hieroglyphics (Giblin 27). Scholars familiar with the Greek language and writing system were able to translate that section, and the final sentence revealed a fact that set the groundwork for future translations of the other parts. The final line reads: “This decree shall be inscribed on a stela of hard stone in sacred and native and Greek characters” (Giblin 27). It came to be understood that the three sections all contained the same message, and scholars promptly set to work on the translations.

Ancient Egypt was a civilization because it followed most or all of the seven indicators of civilization.

Before our modern day obsession with posting to internet walls and worshiping our pets, an ancient civilization nestled on the banks of the Nile River was doing the exact same thing. Except that civilization was over 6,000 years ago. That civilization was Egypt.

The Great pyramids of Egypt are undoubtedly one of the most recognized and admired landmarks in the world. Built to pay tribute to gods and pharaohs, the pyramids were of great importance to the Egyptians, and the mystery of their construction continues to amaze us today. Many theories pertaining to how the pyramids were built have been suggested, however, none are as well supported or intelligible as the heave-ho method of quarrying and cutting limestone. Joseph Davidovits’ theory disproving this, in which states the pyramids were moulded, is not plausible. Substantial physical evidence which is consistent with the Egyptologists’ portrayal of the heave-ho method has been found. The entire process of building a pyramid with this method is possible, as demonstrated by thorough experiments and analysis of the Egyptian culture. Indisputably, the Great Pyramids of Giza were constructed by quarrying limestone, and the use of ramps, sleds, and cutting tools, owing to the ingenuity and strength of highly organized Egyptian workers.

Egypt witnessed Alexander's invasion in 332 BC and consequently Ptolemaic dynasty, a Greek speaking dynasty, was established by Ptolemy. He

Rosetta stone is a stone contains the same text written in three different writing systems- in hieroglyphs, in demotic script, and in the ancient Greek. Scholars deciphered the other two texts by translating the ancient Greek. Hieroglyphics were depicter until the discovery of the Rosetta stone so that we can now realize the value of them. Hieroglyphs continue to provide information about life in ancient Egypt today. In my opinion, Ancient Egyptian Writing System is magnificent because it is evolution from using picture record events to using words to write down events.

Napolean and his men were stranded in Egypt. They began to remodel the Fortress at Rosetta. Then, in 1799, Lieutenant Bouchard discovered a slab of basalt stone while remodeling the Fortress at Rosetta. The stone measured three feet nine inches long, two feet four and a half inches wide, and eleven inches thick and it contained three distinct bands of writing. The most incomplete was the top band containing hieroglyphics, the middle band was an Egyptian script called Demontic script, and the bottom was ancient Greek. This stone was called the Rosetta Stone. The Lieutenant took the stone to the scholars and they soon found out that the stone was a royal decree that basically stated that it was to be written in the languages used in Egypt at the time. Scholars began to focus on the Demontic script, the middle band, because it was more complete and it looked more like letters than the pictures in the upper band that were hieroglyphics. It was essentially a shorthand hieroglyphics that had evolved from an earlier shorthand version of Egyptian called Heiratic script (Hieroglyphics 237).