Rosetta Stone

[druiaghtagh]

Anybody know of the Rosetta stone please?

[Quizmonster]

The British Museum website about the Stone is here http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/egyptian/ea/gall
/rosetta.html

[mikewith]

The British Museum -- no slouch when it comes to collecting stuff -- considers the Rosetta Stone to be the greatest prize in its collection.

[rekstout]

It was a partially damaged stone tablet which was excavated in Rosetta (Egypt) in about 1800. It had text written on it in three different languages - Greek, Demotic and Heiroglyphic.

As ancient Greek was a known and understood language, the other two languages could then be deciphered and it allowed historians to decipher writings of ancient Egypt for the first time


As an aside, It is a commonly used term, referring to anything which is used as a key for deciphering the previously undecipherable.

[firefly]

Although the Rosetta stone was one of top ten treasures of the British Museum it wasn't the top one.