Facts About The Rosetta Stone
The
Rosetta Stone
What
is the Rosetta Stone?
The Rosetta Stone is a stone with writing
on it in two languages (Egyptian and Greek),
using three scripts (hieroglyphic, demotic
and Greek).
Why
is it in three different scripts?
The
Rosetta Stone is written in three scripts
because when it was written, there were
three scripts being used in Egypt.
The
first was hieroglyphic which was the script
used for important or religious documents.
The second was demotic which was the common
script of Egypt.
The
third was Greek which was the language of
the rulers of Egypt at that time.
The
Rosetta Stone was written in all three scripts
so that the priests, government officials
and rulers of Egypt could read what it said.
When
was the Rosetta Stone made?
The
Rosetta Stone was carved in 196 B.C..
When
was the Rosetta Stone found?
The
Rosetta Stone was found in 1799.
Who
found the Rosetta Stone?
The
Rosetta Stone was found by French soldiers
who were rebuilding a fort in Egypt.
Where
was the Rosetta Stone found?
The
Rosetta Stone was found in a small village
in the Delta called Rosetta (Rashid).
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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