Rosetta Stone: The race to decipher Egypt's hieroglyphs
Stefan Dege
September 29, 2022
The key to ancient Egypt: 200 years ago, the Rosetta Stone helped solve the riddle of hieroglyphs. Coincidence played the main role in the archaeological thriller.
The Rosetta Stone: a milestone in deciphering hieroglyphics 200 years ago
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On July 19, 1799, French soldiers pulled an inconspicuous stone slab out of the rubble of a demolition wall in Rosetta, a port city on the Nile Delta. Three sections of writing were carved into the surface. None of the men taking part in Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign (1798-1801) preparing to fight the troops of the Ottoman Empire had any idea what treasure they were holding in their hands. But soon the news spread like wildfire.
The stone tablet made of a granite-like igneous rock, just 112 centimeters high and 75.7 centimeters (44 x 30 inches) wide, turned out to be a fragment of a much larger ancient stele.
But what did the inscriptions, letters and symbols mean?
The slab was also damaged: Two thirds of the upper text, illegible hieroglyphics, were missing. In addition, many lines were damaged at the edges. The middle text in Demotic script, an ancient Egyptian form of writing for daily business, was the best preserved. Of the lower, ancient Greek text, a large corner piece was missing.
Egypt is rich with ancient wonders, including the Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza Image: AlexAnton/Zoonar/picture alliance
A mysterious discovery
But what did the three texts mean? Were they identical messages in different languages and scripts? Lieutenant Pierre-Francois Bouchard, commander of the Napoleonic expeditionary corps, was completely fascinated. The mystery plagued him. He informed French archaeologists who had accompanied the troops. But even they had no explanation and wanted to take the find back to France for further investigation.
However, that attempt failed in 1801 due to the victory of English troops over the French. The defeated were required to hand over all their ancient Egyptian artifacts. And so the Rosetta Stone arrived in London as spoils of war. To this day, it is exhibited in the British Museum.
Electrified by the mysterious find, researchers from all over Europe then began to decipher the writings.
The Frenchman Silvestre de Sacy first compared the demotic with the Greek part of the text. In 1802, the Swede Johan David Akerblad succeeded in reading the demotic names, thus following up on Sacy's work. The British polymath Thomas Young, in turn, tried to solve the scripture puzzle in a mathematical way, but he did not understand the complex grammar of the ancient Egyptian script.
Who was Napoleon Bonaparte?
French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was a ruthless general yet progressive reformer who conquered half of Europe before finally dying in exile 200 years ago.
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Early military career
On August 15, 1769, Napoleon was born in Ajaccio on the island of Corsica. The scion of an impoverished noble family, he was able to attend the Brienne military school thanks to a royal scholarship. Due to his Corsican accent, he was initially teased by his classmates, but his military acumen did not go unnoticed and Napoleon quickly gained respect.
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The young general
Napoleon owed his stellar career to the French Revolution of 1789. Having successfully led the artillery of the revolutionary forces against the royalists in 1793, he was promoted to general and lauded as a young military genius. He was said to be unafraid of death as he believed himself chosen by God and hence immortal. Napoleon thus always went into battle ahead of his soldiers.
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Trademark two-pointed hat
Napoleon cultured a unique style with his two-pointed hat, which, unlike his contemporaries, he wore crosswise on his head. Every year he orderws several of them from the hatter Poupard at a cost of 40 francs. When he was angry, Napoleon is said to have stomped on his hat. Some 19 of his headpieces have survived the centuries and fetch seven-figure sums at auction.
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Forging a legend
The cornerstone of the hero-worship cultured by Napoleon is the three-day Battle of Arcole in Italy against the Austrians in November 1796. The Corsican commander later commissioned this painting from the painter Horace Vernet. He is shown seizing a flag and, undaunted by the hail of bullets from the enemy, charges ahead of his soldiers. Napoleon would continue to self-promote his heroics.
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Great love
Josephine de Beauharnais was six years older than Napoleon and divorced. The military general fell madly in love with her. She nearly followed her former husband, General Alexander de Beauharnais, to the guillotine during the Reign of Terror, but was spared due to the fall of Robespierre, who had had countless nobles beheaded. Her aristocratic contacts proved to be a valuable asset for Napoleon.
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Egyptian campaign
In 1798, two years after their wedding, Napoleon set out on his infamous Egyptian expedition under the orders of the revolutionary government. The campaign on the Nile turned out to be a triumph: Napoleon managed to wrest the country from the Ottoman Empire. He was followed by scientists and artists who researched the history of the ancient pharaohs and triggered great interest in Egypt in Europe.
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Counter-revolutionary
Napoleon was considered the strong man to save France from misrule. In 1799, he took power in a coup d'état and declared the Revolution over. He had himself elected as the First Consul of the Republic and initiated reforms of the judiciary, the military and education. In 1804, he enacted France's first coherent set of laws, the Napoleonic Code, which was adopted throughout Europe and beyond.
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Emperor Napoleon
Being first consul was not enough: In 1804, Napoleon anointed himself emperor. In Paris' Notre-Dame Cathedral, he even snatched the crown from the Pope and unceremoniously placed it on his own head. His role models: Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. He wanted to rule the world. He would later install his siblings as heads of state in the countries he conquered.
Napoleon's war campaigns pumped money into the French treasury. Until 1815, he waged constant war — against the Austrians, Prussians, Russians, and the British and its allies. He turned the whole of Europe upside down. The 900-year-old Holy Roman Empire collapsed, cities like Rome and Cologne became French. "The Corsican and his Bloodhounds" is the title of this contemporary political cartoon.
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Crushing defeat
Napoleon's failed invasion of Russia in 1812 marked the start of his downfall. When his troops reached Moscow, they found an abandoned city. The Grande Armée soon perished in the freezing winter. Very few soldiers made it back to France. Russia's Tsar then allied himself with Prussia and Austria, who faced off the French at the "Battle of the Nations" in Leipzig in 1813. Napoleon admitted defeat.
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Battle of Waterloo
After Napoleon's defeat, the victorious powers had convened the Congress of Vienna to reorganize Europe's military alliances and create a balance of power. But suddenly, the Frenchman reappeared, and battles were waged again. He won the first battle, but at Waterloo in Belgium, he was crushed by the troops of the English general, the Duke of Wellington.
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Exile on Saint Helena
The British then banished Napoleon to the island of St. Helena in the middle of the South Atlantic (this image, from 2012). The Frenchman was no longer able to surprise the Allies again. There, Napoleon died on May 5, 1821, presumably from stomach cancer. The enlightened despot who passed important judicial and civil reforms while wreaking death and destruction across Europe was just 51 years old.
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Linguist Champollion figured it out
It was Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832), a French linguist, who finally achieved the breakthrough: Unlike Young, he spoke fluent Coptic and knew a great deal about Egypt and its culture. He discovered that the characters of the Demotic script stood for syllables, while the Ptolemaic hieroglyphs in turn reflected sounds of the Coptic language.
"This allowed Champollion to prove that the Coptic language was behind the hieroglyphic script," Hanover-based Egyptologist Christian Loeben told DW. "That's how he deciphered the hieroglyphs."
Absolutely thrilled, Champollion is said to have run into his brother's office and shouted "Je tiens mon affair! ("I've got it!") — only to then faint.
Egyptian hieroglyphics — a pictographic script using human figures, animals and objects — were in use from about 3,200 BC to 400 AD. In time, the written language fell completely out of usage and could no longer be read.
So where exactly did the Rosetta Stone come from? And what were the carved writings all about?
Hieroglyphs reflect sounds from the Coptic language
Scientists assume that the stele was created around 196 BC in the Ptolemaic era (ca. 323 to 30 BC). The rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty had been threatened by power struggles since the death of pharaoh Ptolemy IV. When a revolt broke out in 204 BC, loyalty to the pharaoh was required and an Egyptian synod of priests formulated the so-called "Decree of Memphis" in 196 BC.
It was written in such a way that three groups of the population could read it: For the priests as words of God in hieroglyphics; for the officials in Egyptian in Demotic letter writing; and for the Greek rulers over Egypt in ancient Greek capital letters. Identical stelae were to be erected in every temple in Egypt.
Pride of place for the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum Image: Daniel Kalker/picture alliance
With the help of the Rosetta Stone, Jean-Francois Champollion created an alphabet of phonetic hieroglyphs. Other scholars were able to use it to translate the inscription completely.
"Thanks to the Rosetta Stone, Champollion was able to decipher the hieroglyphs. This gave the Egyptians their voice again," says Loeben, who heads the Egyptian Department at the Kestner Museum in Hanover. "At the same time, it marked the birth of Egyptology."
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Who are the owners?
To this day, the Rosetta Stone is considered one of the most important archaeological finds ever. Its significance is huge — and not only for science. After all, to whom does the artifact that reached England during colonial times belong?
"The stone belongs to humanity, no matter where it is," says German Egyptologist Loeben. "Egyptian objects in museums around the world are Egypt's best ambassadors outside the country." This also benefits tourism, he says, which ultimately brings money to the land of the pharaohs.
Loeben is currently preparing a major exhibition on the Rosetta Stone for the Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim, Germany. The show "Deciphered" will begin on September 9, 2023.
Starting on October 13, 2022, a major exhibition at the British Museum in London titled "Hieroglyphs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt" will honor the achievements of the researchers' discoveries — exactly 200 years after the deciphering of the hieroglyphs.
