Discovering The Rosetta Stone
This day in history: July 15th, 1799
“For many, the icon of the British Museum is the Rosetta Stone, that administrative by-product of the Greek imperial adventure in Africa.” — Neil MacGregor
A large granite stone sits as a centrepiece of the British Museum. The monolith of stone, encased in glass, is one of the most viewed objects in the country. It is about three feet tall and two feet wide and weighs about 1600 pounds. But on the face of this rock are what seem to be three written languages. When looking at it without a trained eye, one could assume that they are all different but that is not the case. Two are Egyptian, one being hieroglyphs on top and demotic script in the middle. The third is Greek. This stone, that still sits in the British Museum is one of the most important French discoveries for the study of Egypt.
Now you might be thinking, “What the hell does that mean?” And if you are unaware of how the Britsh got this stone, you would be. See, like many things in the late 1790s it goes back to Napoleon.
How it was found
In 1798, Napoleon had this brilliant idea of invading Egypt. Egypt had been in the minds of the people of Europe for the…
