The Rosetta Stone is a stele of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic and Demotic scripts, respectively, while the bottom is in Ancient Greek. The decree has only minor differences across the three versions, making the Rosetta Stone key to deciphering the Egyptian scripts. The stone was carved during the Hellenistic period and is believed to have originally been displayed within a temple, possibly at Sais. It was probably moved in late antiquity or during the Mamluk period and was eventually used as building material in the construction of Fort Julien near the town of Rashid (Rosetta) in the Nile Delta. It was found there in July 1799 by French officer Pierre-François Bouchard during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt. It was the first Ancient Egyptian bilingual text recovered in modern times, and it aroused widespread public interest with its potential to decipher this previously untranslated hieroglyphic script. Lithographic copies and plaster casts soon began circulating among European museums and scholars. When the British defeated the French, they took the stone to London under the terms of the Capitulation of Alexandria in 1801. Since 1802, it has been on public display at the British Museum almost continuously and it is the most visited object there. We celebrate this feat of linguistics with an AI image of the stone …

Buying my Art

You can have selected pictures of mine printed on Pixieset (Selective Coloration), PictRS (Landscapes) or VIEWBUG (Both and more), if you like them. Please click on one of the links above or the buttons below …

PictRS is also accessible via the QR code:

Meine Kunst Kaufen

Sie können einige ausgewählte Bilder bei Pixieset (Selective Kolorierung), bei PictRS (Landschaften) oder VIEWBUG (Beide und mehr) kaufen, falls Sie Ihnen Diese gefallen, klicken Sie auf einem der obigen Links oder den einer den unteren Buttons…

PictRS ist auch über den QR Code erreichbar:

July 15

If you are interested what else happened on this day, please click on the calendar or press the button below:

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