Rosetta Stone - the First One - My Thoughts Exactly!

The Rosetta Stone’s discovery and translation marked a turning point in our understanding… without it, we would never have been able to understand this fascinating civilization to the level that we do today. ~The Anthrotorian

No, the image above is not “the” Rosetta Stone, but it does illustrate the hieroglyphs that puzzled explorers for eons. The real stone was, in fact, the precursor of today’s Rosetta Stone language app that millions have used to learn other languages. Where did the original, ancient stone come from? And what is its significance?

Long, Long Ago and Far, Far Away

We aren’t sure of every detail, and there are likely multiple versions. However, I’m going with the British Museum (britishmuseum.org) version, which should be relatively credible. Here’s how they describe it. French troops found the original stones in July of 1799. Napoleon had his sights set on disrupting British trade routes, which led to the campaign in Egypt. He wasn’t in Rashid (Rosetta to us) when Pierre-François Bouchard uncovered the stones in the process of tearing down old Fort walls. However, he had “people”. His entourage included civilians who had special abilities – mathematicians and engineers, for example. These people understood the historical significance.

So did the British, once they had overcome the French army’s attempt to entrench themselves in this geographic area. Further, their general wanted the Rosetta Stone for their country. After negotiations, the French kept some artifacts, but the British kept the stone. It has been on near-continuous display at the British Museum since 1802.

The Stone Itself

The inscriptions on the stone* are ancient, dating to 192 B.C., and commemorate the first anniversary of the coronation of King Ptolemy V, an Egyptian king who ruled for over twenty years. His history is too detailed to go into here–that’s another story for another day. The point is that his decree, inscribed on the stone (stela), was written not only in Egyptian symbols, but also in Demotic. That was the Egyptian cursive (then the “language of the people”) and ancient Greek. It was the repetition of the same message in different languages that held the key to translation. *Note that the stone was not found intact, It was incomplete when found.

Two gentlemen are credited with cracking the code. One was Thomas Young, an English physicist (they had those in the 19th century???), who determined that some of the hieroglyphs represented the sound of the royal name Ptolemy. Building on that theory, the French scholar Jean-François Champollion concluded that hieroglyphs represented the sounds of the Egyptian language spoken at the time. Between that and comparison to the other languages included, they were able to decipher the hieroglyphs. Champollion announced his discovery in September of 1822

What Does the Rosetta Stone Symbolize?

Historians would say that having access to the stone’s message sheds light on the ancient world. No doubt that’s true, but as significant as that is, there’s more. Well, at least in my view. We, and probably every generation before us, move confidently through the modern world–whatever that means at the time–assuming we know more. Understand more. But if we’re honest, we have to ask ourselves whether we would have been able to draw the same conclusions of Young or Champollion. You know, with the same 19th-century tools.

That type of history also provides a template for solving problems, chipping away one puzzle piece at a time and perhaps building on someone else’s work. Drawing upon all available resources, both human and otherwise, aids in solving the problem at hand and enables the catharsis that accompanies success.

No matter what level of complexity our tools and toys achieve, we are still just humans, and we would be foolish to ignore the accomplishments of those to whom the electric fan was state-of-the-art, for example. While we should certainly strive to move forward, we also need to look back.