The Rosetta Stone

Lore & Background

The Rosetta Stone was carved during the Hellenistic period and is believed to have originally been displayed within a temple, possibly at Sais. It was probably moved in late antiquity or during the Mamluk period and eventually used as building material in the construction of Fort Julien near the town of Rashid (Rosetta) in the Nile Delta. The stone bears three inscriptions: the top register in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the second in Egyptian Demotic script, and the third in Ancient Greek. The decree has only minor differences across the three versions. The hieroglyphic text is Middle Egyptian, a deliberately archaic imitation used in formal religious texts. The Demotic text more closely represents the stage of Egyptian spoken in Ptolemaic times. The front surface is polished and the inscriptions lightly incised; the sides are smoothed, but the back is only roughly worked, presumably because it would not have been visible when the stele was erected. It established the divine cult of the new ruler Ptolemy V and was designed to re-establish Ptolemaic rule over Egypt during a turbulent period that included the Great Theban Revolt and external threats from Antiochus III the Great and Philip V of Macedon.

Reader's Guide

The Rosetta Stone's significance lies in its role as the essential key to deciphering ancient Egyptian scripts. Three other fragmentary copies of the same decree were discovered later, and several similar Egyptian bilingual or trilingual inscriptions are now known, including three slightly earlier Ptolemaic decrees. Though the Rosetta Stone is now known not to be unique, it was the essential key to the modern understanding of ancient Egyptian literature and civilisation. The term Rosetta Stone is now used in a general sense to refer to the essential clue to a new field of knowledge.

Did You Know?

• The Rosetta Stone is a fragment of a larger stele; no additional fragments were found in later searches of the Rosetta site.
• The hieroglyphic text is 'neo-Middle Egyptian', a deliberately archaic imitation of the original Middle Egyptian language used in formal religious texts.
• The decree was issued during a turbulent period that included the Great Theban Revolt and a pact between Antiochus III the Great and Philip V of Macedon to divide Egypt's overseas possessions.