Mesopotamia – Egypt

The Rosetta Stone

References:

Romancing the Stone, History Today. May, 2006

BBC The Rosetta Stone

In February 1802, Colonel Turner sailed into Portsmouth harbour on the captured french ship HMS 'L'Egyptienne'. Colonel Turner had in his possession the Rosetta stone, what he claimed was a prize of war captured from the french that had the potential to unlock the mysterious language of hieroglyphics. The facts of how Britain really acquired the stone remain a mystery. Colonel Turner claimed it was a prize of war, but Edward Clarke, a famous scholar who was in Alexandria after the french surrender, claims the stone was peacefully handed to the British. Oddly, a list that described artifacts recovered by the British after the french surrender states that the stone was "loaded onto HMS Madras" (History Today).

In 1799, the stone was discovered on the West bank of the Nile in the port of Rashid by french soldiers. The stone was dated to the reign of Ptolemy V, 196BC. After Napoleon left Egypt, the 167 remaining scholars, scientists and other professionals formed the 'Institut d'Egypte' in 1798. This institute focused on the studies of ancient Egypt and revealing her secrets, the Rosetta Stone came into the possession of this organization. In 1801, after the french surrender and transfer of artifacts to the british the english crown profited largely from all the previously done french research. The British Broadcasting Corporation does not mention any of the progress that the French made before they surrendered in 1801. The podcast highlights how Thomas Young made the first key step of cracking the code by discovering the name of Ptolemy V inside the inscriptions. Later, the podcast mentions how Jean Francois Champollion worked off the progress of Young and realized the language was both pictorial and phonetic. In 1822, Champollion had cracked the code of hieroglyphics.