Rosetta stone why is it important

The artifact was originally displayed in a temple, possibly near the ancient town of Sais, then centuries later moved to Rosetta and used in the construction of Fort Julien, where it was eventually uncovered by the French. The Rosetta Stone came into the possession of the British after they defeated the French in Egypt in Young surmised that the cartouches—hieroglyphs enclosed in ovals—contained the phonetic spellings of royal names, including Ptolemy, who was referenced in the Greek inscription.

Ultimately, it was French linguist Jean-Francois Champollion who deciphered the Rosetta Stone and cracked the hieroglyphic code. For his discoveries, Champollion is heralded as the founding father of Egyptology.

There have been repeated calls for it to be repatriated to Egypt. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! The following year, French linguists, working on a copy of the text made after the initial discovery, produced a copy in both French and Latin. Meanwhile, a French linguist had recognized some of the letters on the other non-hieroglyph set of writing as belonging to what came to be called Demotic script.

Characters written in this script had been found in Egypt and were similar to the Coptic language, which had begun in the area in more recent times.

Silvestre de Sacy did not work on the translation further except to remark to one of his colleagues that names in hieroglyphs might be written phonetically. This supposition was based on work done by previous French scholars. A British researcher took the French suggestion to heart and succeeded in identifying several similarities between the Ancient Greek text and the Demotic script.

Until that time, researchers in all countries had believed that the texts were independent of one another. Another French scholar was the one who ultimately cracked the code. Jean-Francois Champollion had, in , identified the phonetic characters spelling the name of Cleopatra in two inscriptions on a famous obelisk. One inscription was Greek, and the other was in hieroglyphs. Champollion turned his attention to the Rosetta Stone and eventually found similarities for the pharaonic names Ramses and Thutmose.

In , he announced a full translation of the hieroglyphs. The Frenchman eventually constructed a hieroglyphic dictionary and a grammar of Ancient Egyptian writings. Many historians now think that the Rosetta Stone text was written in three languages so that most Egyptians could understand it. Ancient Greek was the language of the pharaohs at the time the Stone was carved, B.

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Facebook YouTube Twitter Instagram. The Latest. How Was the Rosetta Stone Discovered? Who Cracked the Code? The unlocking of the Rosetta Stone was essentially a shared effort. Want to learn more? You might also enjoy these articles from the Sporcle Blog. Is Egypt Part of Africa or Asia?

What Are Hieroglyphics?