The French actually discovered the Stone in mid-July 1799. It was found in the town of Rashid, but the town was also known as Rosetta. The Stone had been repurposed and built into a wall. As soon as it was discovered, the significance of the stone was realized.
So if the French found the Rosetta Stone, what is it doing in the British Museum in London? Remember Napoleon, the French Emperor? The French fleet battled the British fleet, led by Admiral Horatio Nelson (later Lord Nelson) in what has become known as the Battle of the Nile. The naval battle took place in early August 1798. This battle and others to follow did not go well for the French, and they were eventually forced to leave Egypt. The French had intended to bring the Rosetta Stone back to France, but between the treaty signed at the end of the war and failed attempts to hide the stone, the British ended up with the prized artifact. The French did get a cast of the stone and also some very clear printings of the text as the stone was basically a large, flat printing plate.
I figured a couple of folks sat down in front of the stone and translated the Greek and the Egyptian hieroglyphic sections together, enlightenment ignites, and the ancient mystery is history. Story over. Nope.
The Demotic text was translated from the Greek in parts relatively quickly. It took years to decipher the hieroglyphics as many thought the text was read as symbols or possibly as sounds. If you saw a chiseled “bird” did this mean the Egyptian word for a bird or something that sounded similar? Years later the symbols were found to be letters with sounds (phonetics) included.
The two scholars given credit for the Egyptian translation were Thomas Young from England and Jean-Francois Champollion from France. Even though their countries were always bickering, the scientists found a way to keep in touch and share information.
By 1816 Young had translated about 5 letters by deciphering the King’s name Ptolemy. By 1819 he had expanded the alphabet by adding the letters to Queen Cleopatra’s name which was on an obelisk, also in England.
The actual breakthrough in the translation process can be traced to September 14, 1822. Champollion had seen Young’s work and agreed with his conclusions. In addition, Champollion was able to translate several pharaohs’ names from other inscriptions. He set up a table with columns of Greek, Demotic, and Egyptian letters. Over 20 years had passed since the Rosetta Stone was rediscovered.
Jean-Francois Champollion was able to view the Rosetta Stone only one time in the British Museum in 1824.
Four other Rosetta Stone facts…
❶ Until 1847 the Stone was uncovered at the British Museum. You could touch the Stone.
❷ There is a fourth language inscribed on the Rosetta Stone- English. On one side appear the words: “Captured in Egypt by the British Army in 1801”. On the opposite side are the words: “Presented by King George III”. I interpret this as graffiti.
❸ The Rosetta Stone did travel to the Louvre Museum in Paris. It was on display in October 1972. This was the 150th anniversary of the translation breakthrough.
❹ There is a cast of the Rosetta Stone in the King’s Library at the British Museum. You can feel the fine inscribed text on the smooth stone face.
Source: The Rosetta Stone by Richard Parkinson, 2017.
Editor’s note: If you’d like to learn more about what’s on the Rosetta Stone or how Young and Champollion cracked the code of understanding Egyptian hieroglyphs, then click here; it’s a blog from the British Museum.