On National Teacher Day, meet the 2024-25 Kenan Fellows
Preservation
1. The Rosetta Stone
Kaustuv Chakrabarti
Roll-8, Semester-4th
Department of Library and Information Science
University of Calcutta
2. The Rosetta Stone
One of the keys to unlocking the
secrets of ancient Egyptian writing
was the 'Rosetta Stone'.
3. 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 anniversary
of his coronatio
4. 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.
6. 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.
7. Three different scripts in Rosetta
Stone
The first was hieroglyphic which was
the script used for important or
religious documents.
8. Three different scripts in Rosetta
Stone
The second was demotic which was
the common script of Egypt.
10. Three different scripts in Rosetta
Stone
The third was Greek which was the
language of the rulers of Egypt at that
time.
11. Three different scripts in Rosetta
Stone
The Rosetta Stone was written in all
three scripts so that the priests,
government officials and rulers of
Egypt could read what it said.
12. When was the Rosetta Stone made?
The Rosetta Stone was carved in 196
B.C..
13. When was the Rosetta Stone found?
The Rosetta Stone was found in 1799.
by French soldiers who were
rebuilding a fort in Egypt.
14. Where was the Rosetta Stone found?
The Rosetta Stone was found in a
small village in the Delta called
Rosetta (Rashid).
15. Why is it called the Rosetta Stone?
It is called the Rosetta Stone because
it was discovered in a town called
Rosetta (Rashid).
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. 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.
20. 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
21. 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
22. 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.
23. 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.
24. 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
25. 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.
26. 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.
27. 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.
.
36. 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)
37. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to acknowledge
Prof. Dr. Swapna Bandhoypadhay for her
valuable guidance to fulfill this project
work.
