Why is
it called the Rosetta Stone?
It is called the Rosetta Stone because it was
discovered in a town called Rosetta (Rashid).
What does the Rosetta Stone say?
The Rosetta Stone is a text written by a group
of priests in Egypt to honour the Egyptian
pharaoh. It lists all of the things that the
pharaoh has done that are good for the priests and
the people of Egypt.
Who
deciphered hieroglyphs?
Many people worked
on deciphering hieroglyphs over several
hundred years. However, the structure of the
script was very difficult to work out.
After many years of studying the Rosetta Stone
and other examples of ancient Egyptian writing,
Jean-François Champollion deciphered hieroglyphs
in 1822.
How
did Champollion decipher hieroglyphs?
Champollion could read both Greek and coptic.
He was able to figure out what the seven
demotic signs in coptic were. By looking at how
these signs were used in coptic he was able to
work out what they stood for. Then he began
tracing these demotic signs back to hieroglyphic
signs.
By working out what some hieroglyphs stood for,
he could make educated guesses about what the
other hieroglyphs stood for.
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