preservation

The Rosetta Stone

Kaustuv ChakrabartiRoll-8, Semester-4th

Department of Library and Information ScienceUniversity of Calcutta

The Rosetta Stone

One of the keys to unlocking the

secrets of ancient Egyptian writing

was the 'Rosetta Stone'.

The Rosetta Stone

A valuable key to the decipherment of hieroglyphs, the inscription on the Rosetta Stone is a decree passed by a council of priests. It is one of a series that affirm the royal cult of the 13-year-old Ptolemy V on the first anniversaryof his coronatio

The Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is a stone with writing on it in two languages Egyptian and Greek.

It is using three scripts hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek.

The Rosetta Stone

Three different scripts in Rosetta Stone

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. 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?

After many years of studying the Rosetta Stone and other examples of ancient Egyptian writing, Jean-François Champollion deciphered hieroglyphs in 1822.

Who deciphered hieroglyphs?

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

Rosetta Stone Now

The Rosetta Stone has been exhibited in the British Museum since 1802, with only one break. Towards the end of the First World War, in 1917, when the Museum was concerned about heavy bombing in London, they moved it to safety along with other, portable, 'important' objects. The Rosetta Stone spent the next two years in a station on the Postal Tube Railway 50 feet below the ground at Holborn.

Rosetta Stone Now

When the Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799, the carved characters that covered its surface were quickly copied. Printer's ink was applied to the Stone and white paper laid over it. When the paper was removed, it revealed an exact copy of the text - but in reverse. Since then, many copies or 'facsimiles' have been made using a variety of materials. Inevitably, the surface of the Stone accumulated many layers of material left over from these activities, despite attempts to remove any residue. Once on display, the grease from many thousands of human hands eager to touch the Stone added to the problem.

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Rosetta Stone Now

In 1999, the Rosetta Stone was the centerpiece of the British Museum exhibition Cracking Codes. As part of the exhibition preparations, the opportunity was taken to investigate and clean this famous object

Rosetta Stone Now

When work commenced to remove all but the original, ancient material the stone was black with white lettering. As treatment progressed, the different substances uncovered were analysed. Grease from human handling, a coating of carnauba wax from the early1800s and printer's ink from 1799 were cleaned away using cotton wool swabs and liniment of soap.

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Rosetta Stone Now

Finally, white paint in the text, applied in 1981, which had been left in place until now as a protective coating, was removed with cotton swabs and purified water. A small square at the bottom left corner of the face of the Stone was left untouched to show the darkened wax and the white infill.

Rosetta Stone Now

The Stone has a dark grey-pinkish tone with a pink streak running through it. Today you see traces of a reddish brown in the text. This material was analyses and found to be a clear mineral known as hydroxyapatite; the color may be due to iron traces. The mineral may have been applied deliberately, but there is no proof of this. This substance is not known by experts to have been used as a pigment, nor to have been used as a base for painting (a ground) in ancient Egypt..

Rosetta Stone Now

Rosetta Stone Reconstructed

Rosetta Stone Discovery Report

Rosetta Stone At British Museum

Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone Examined By Experts

Rosetta Stone At Rashid

Table To Convert Hyerographics

REFERENCES

C.A.R. Andrews, The Rosetta Stone (London, The British Museum Press, 1982)

R. Parkinson, The Rosetta Stone (London, British Museum Press, 2005)

R. Parkinson, Cracking codes: the Rosetta Stone and decipherment (London, The British Museum Press, 1999)

C.A.R. Andrews and S. Quirke, The Rosetta Stone: facsimile drawing (London, The British Museum Press, 1988)

R.S. Simpson, Demotic grammar in the Ptolemaic Sacerdotal Decrees (Oxford, Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, 1996)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to acknowledge Prof. Dr. Swapna Bandhoypadhay for her valuable guidance to fulfill this project work.

THANK YOU

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