To celebrate the 200th anniversary of this seismic unravelling, a major show about hieroglyphs, curated by Regulski, is about to open at the British Museum in London, where the Rosetta Stone now resides, the British army having taken it off the French when they cut short their campaign in 1801. “This is the birth of Egyptology!” It’s an evocative spot, now shaded by the huge spreading branches of a royal poinciana, or flame tree, named for its crimson blossom. “This is not just Egyptology,” says Ilona Regulski excitedly, standing by a replica that sits where the stone was discovered. The scale of his achievement can hardly be overstated: thanks to this French philologist, and a few other scholars including Britain’s Thomas Young, 3,000 years of Egyptian history, one of the world’s oldest civilisations, came cascading out into the light.Īlso available as a snow globe … the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum.
Ancient space gods cracked#
The code was finally cracked in 1822 by Jean-François Champollion, who rushed into his brother’s office, shouted “I’ve got it!” then fainted and wasn’t himself for five days. Here, at long, long, long last, was the key to deciphering hieroglyphs, those perfect outlines of people, animals and objects scratched into stone or written on to papyrus millennia ago. Although the message is somewhat dull, crucially it was written three times: in hieroglyphs (the beautiful ancient Egyptian pictorial script that could no longer be understood), in demotic (the joined-up lettering used for everyday writing), and in ancient Greek (a known language). This 762kg chunk of granodiorite, recycled from elsewhere into use as a building block, was inscribed with a decree issued in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V.
Champollion rushed into his brother’s office, shouted ‘I’ve got it’ and then fainted
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