Rosetta Stone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Rosetta Stone is a dark granite stone (often incorrectly identified as basalt) with writing on it in two languages, Egyptian and Greek, using three scripts, Hieroglyphic, Demotic Egyptian and Greek. Because Greek was well known, the stone was the key to deciphering the hieroglyphs. Ptolemy assumed the crown at the tender age of 5 after a rather turbulent time in Egyptian history. The young ruler was faced with the daunting task of reclaiming lands lost to various invaders and reunifying his country's populace. As an attempt to reestablish legitimacy for the ruler and create a royal cult, Ptolemy's priests issued a series of decrees (a judicial decision or order). The decrees were inscribed on stones and erected throughout Egypt. The Rosetta stone is a copy of the decree issued in the city of Memphis.
The same Ptolemaic decree of 196 BC is written on the stone in the three scripts. The Greek part of the Rosetta Stone begins: Basileuontos tou neou kai paralabontos tén basileian para tou patros... (The new king, having received the kingship from his father...) It is a decree from Ptolemy V, describing various taxes he repealed (one measured in ardebs (Greek artabai) per aroura), and instructing that statues be erected in temples and that the decree be published in the writing of the words of gods (hieroglyphs), the writing of the people (demotic), and the Wynen (Greek; the word is cognate with Ionian) language.
The Greeks had the habit of making bilinguals in territories they occupied, and in this case we have Egyptian, and Greek. Thus the Egyptian hieroglyphs, and the Egyptian Demotic (citizen text, as in democratic), was written against the Greek language, as the new occupiers of pharaonic rule, following Alexander the Great's conquest.
The Rosetta Stone is stone three in a series of 3, a stone each for Ptolemy III, Ptolemy IV, and the Rosetta Stone, for Ptolemy V. Leap Year is implemented in Stone 1, the Stone of Canopus, for Ptolemy III.
There are approximately two copies, of the Stone of Canopus, two of stone 2 (one imperfect), The Memphis Stele, and two and a half copies of the Rosetta Stone, including the Nubayrah Stele, and a pyramid Wall inscription, with editings because of overwriting by scene replacements by subsequent scribers.
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Condensed listing, the three decrees, the three-stone series
Multiple copies of the stones, were erected in multiple temple courtyards, as specified in the text of the decrees.
- 239 BCE Decree of Canopus (Ptolemy III), (247-221 BCE)
- stone 1: "Stele of Canopus", (no. 1), found 1866, 37 lines hieroglyphs, 74 lines Demotic(right side), 76 Greek 'capitals', fine limestone.
- stone 2: Stele of Canopus, no. 2, found 1881, 26 lines hieroglyphs, 20 lines Demotic, 64 lines Greek capitals, white limestone.
- 3rd partial of hieroglyphic lines (location: Louvre).
- 216 BCE Decree of Memphis (Ptolemy IV), (221-203 BCE)
- stone 1: Stele No. 1, found 1902, hieroglyphs, demotic, and Greek, dark granite.
- stone 2: Pithom Stele, No. II, found 1923, hieroglyphs (front), 42 lines Demotic (back), virtually complete providing almost total translation, and Greek (side), sandstone.
- 196 BCE Decree of Memphis (Ptolemy V), (203-198 BCE)
- stone 1: Rosetta Stone, "Stele of Rosetta", found 1799, (remaining) hieroglyphs, 14 lines, 32 lines Demotic, 54 lines Greek 'capitals', dark granite.
- stone 2: Stele of Nubayrah, found early 1880's, hieroglyphs, lines 1-27 used to complete missing Rosetta Stone lines, demotic, Greek capitals, limestone.
- site 3: the Temple of Philae, inscribed hieroglyphs, for Decree of Memphis (Ptolemy V), on walls, also overwritten, by scenes, and figures of humans/gods.
Totals: 6 stones, or stelae, 1 partial, and one temple wall inscription writing.
History of the stone
French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard (1772-1832) discovered the stone in the Egyptian port city of Rosetta (present-day Rashid) on July 15, 1799.
Some scientists [1] accompanied Napoleon's French campaign in Egypt (1798-1801). After Napoleon Bonaparte founded the Institut de l'Égypte in Cairo in 1798 some 50 became members of it. Bouchard found a black stone when guiding construction works in the Fort Julien near the city of Rosetta. He immediately understood the importance of the stone and showed it to General Abdallah Jacques de Menou who decided that it should be brought to the institute, where it arrived in August, 1799.
In 1801 the French had to surrender. A dispute arose about the results of the scientists—the French wishing to keep them, while the British considered them forfeit, in the name of King George III.
The French scientist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, writing to the English diplomat William Richard Hamilton threatened to burn all their discoveries, ominously referring to the burned Library of Alexandria. The British capitulated, and they insisted only on the delivery of the monuments. The French tried to hide the Rosetta Stone in a boat despite the clauses of the capitulation, but failed. The French were allowed to take the imprints they had made previously, when embarking in Alexandria.
When it was brought back to Britain, it was presented to the British Museum, where it has been kept since 1802.
In 1814, Thomas Young finished translating the enchorial (demotic) text, and went on to work on the hieroglyphic alphabet. Jean-François Champollion greatly expanded on his work during the years 1822–1824, and is known as the translator of the Rosetta Stone.
White painted inscriptions, contemporary with its acquisition, record on the left side 'Captured in Egypt by the British Army in 1801' and on the right 'Presented by King George III'. The stone was cleaned by the British Museum in 1998, and this evidence of its history was not removed. A small area of the surface at the bottom left hand corner was also left uncleaned for comparative purposes.
In July 2003, the Egyptians demanded the return of the Rosetta Stone. Dr. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo told the press: "If the British want to be remembered, if they want to restore their reputation, they should volunteer to return the stone because it is the icon of our Egyptian identity."
Use as metaphor
Rosetta Stone is also used as a metaphor to refer to anything that is a critical key to a process of decryption, translation, or a difficult problem, e.g., "the Rosetta stone of immunology", "thalamocortical rhythms, the Rosetta Stone of a subset of neurological disorders", "Arabidopsis, the Rosetta stone of flowering time".
Today, there is a popular foreign language instructional software package called The Rosetta Stone. Also, the ESA space probe Rosetta is named after it, because it is hoped the mission will help unlock the secrets of how our solar system looked before planets formed.
See also
External links
- The Rosetta Stone in The British Museum
- The translated text in English
- The Finding of The Rosetta Stone
- An account of Napoléon's findings in Egypt
- The 1998 conservation and restoration of The Rosetta Stone at The British Museum
- High-detailed photo of the stone (1.3 MB)
- The Rosetta Project, a project whose aim is to produce Rosetta Stone-like discs in order to preserve dying languages.
References
- Budge. The Rosetta Stone, E.A.Wallace Budge, (Dover Publications), c 1929, Dover edition(unabridged), 1989.
- Parkinson. Cracking Codes, the Rosetta Stone, and Decipherment, Richard Parkinson, with W. Diffie, M. Fischer, and R.S. Simpson, (University of California Press), c. 1999.
