Rosetta Stone

Abstract

The Rosetta Stone (British Museum EA24) is a granodiorite stele, found in 1799, inscribed with three versions of a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The top and middle texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic and demotic scripts, respectively, while the bottom is in Ancient Greek. As the decree has only minor differences between the three versions, the Rosetta Stone proved to be the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.