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What do you already know about ancient Egypt? Rosetta Stone?

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Why do you think the ancient Egyptians made the Rosetta Stone?

Who unlocked the secrets to the Rosetta Stone and how did he do it?

Location, Stone, and Language Learning Software



Software Version

 What do a location, stone, and language learning software all have in common? Nothing unless you are talking about Rosetta. The city of Rosetta (present day Rashid) is located on the edge of the delta and the Mediterranean Sea. It was also where the actual Rosetta Stone was found. We're talking rock, not software. The Rosetta Stone (the modern day software) is named after the Rosetta Stone (rock). Is this too confusing? How about I put it this way, the software is named after the rock, the rock is named after the town. Better? Good. You're probably wondering why something modern is named after something that we could call as old as dirt. The actual Rosetta Stone, found in Egypt, dated back to 196 B.C.  The Rosetta Stone rock must have been something really important for a modern day software company to chose it for it's name!  The company chose the name because the Rosetta Stone (rock) contained three versions of the same writing on one large stone.  This allowed many different groups of people to be able to read what it said.  That must be why Rosetta Stone the software chose this for their name because it fits perfectly with what the software was going to do. So can you imagine something with the same name used as three completely different ideas?

The Huge Discovery

What would you do if you found the most amazing artifact while invading another country?  You could send it to your base, which is exactly what happened to a French officer during the Napoleonic Conquest and Occupation of Egypt.  What they didn’t know was how valuable it was at the time.  You see, about two decades later some guy would decipher the text and that would be the key to unlocking the ancient civilization of Egypt.  The French were pretty smart for keeping it you could say. The artifact was a huge stone with scribbles for writing.  The stone was found at an old fort near the town of Rosetta so they named the rock Rosetta Stone based on where they found it.  Not very much creativity on their part, so I guess (read the whole blog so you will understand) ancient Egyptians had about as much creativity as the French in the early 1800’s. What do you think about the discovery?  Good or bad?

Ugly Vs. Beautiful

 If you have read the information above you will know the Rosetta Stone was a rock, so was it beautiful or hideous? You will have to decide for yourself, but I want you to put yourself in place of ancient Egyptians. The Rosetta Stone for starters is 3 foot 9 inches tall and 2 feet and 1/2 inch thick. That's absolutely huge for a rock with engravings. Just think about the scribes that had to write that, it must have taken a long time for it to even be complete with the first inscription. The rock itself is made of granite so it is pretty hard but if it is the right type of granite then it could also be beautiful. The Rosetta Stone was thought to be grey with pink veining when the Egyptians engraved it, but after the artificial darkening to make copies it started to lose its natural color. There are 3 languages engraved on the Rosetta Stone: the first 14 lines are hieroglyphics, the middle 32 lines are demotic, and the last 54 lines are Greek. Who would think of doing an engraving in three different languages? Egyptians I guess. When the stone was found it had three of the four corners missing. I suppose this adds to the age. So is the Rosetta Stone ugly or beautiful?

Champollion the Great




Champollion

  For a person that only lives to 41, I think that deciphering an entire ancient language is pretty impressive. Jean-Francois Champollion did just that. His childhood was impressive too. He knew Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, Persian, English, German, Italian, Latin, Syriac, Chaldean, Coptic, and a few other Near Eastern languages by 17.17! I only know one language and I'm 12, I've got a ways to go if I want to catch up to him. When he was eleven he visited a man, Jean-Baptiste Fourier, who had a copy of the Rosetta Stone. Ever since he laid eyes on the stone he wanted to be the first to decipher it. Big dreams for an eleven year old, but maybe we should find something we want to accomplish and do it. Eventually Champollion got his grubby hands on a copy, you see living terms for him was an attic. It took Champollion 21 years to decipher a simple message and when  he did all he had to do was do the opposite of what he did before he would have had it right off the bat. That's 21 years practically wasted. By that time it was 1822. After Champollion deciphered more he started making a book which would be published in 1824 that included all the discoveries he made in the Egyptologist field. So what might you get for being the key to unlocking an ancient civilization? A trip to Egypt of course! Unfortunately, Champollion died shortly after that due to ill health, he will always be Champollion the Great in the view of Egyptologists.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The Decree

The Rosetta Stone

So after a whopping 21 years Egyptologists have finally found out what the Rosetta Stone says, that's a very long time if you ask me. The first word is decree, I think that is a very big word for ancient Egyptians. The decree says that there is going to be a feast in honor of the deceased King Ptolemy and the succession of his son King Ptolemy. I think we are figuring out that ancient Egyptians didn't have lots of creativity or they just want to keep the family name. So at the feast they are going to talk about how King Ptolemy (the dead person) was 'all great' and the 'protecter of Egypt', the one thing I, and scientists, want to know is why? I guess if scientists build a time machine we'll know, but until that we have to just use the rest of technology we have. Another thing scientists want to know is why did the scribes write the message 3 times each a different language. That's one mystery alone that will probably never be uncovered.