Rosetta Stone found 1799
On this day in 1799, during Napoleon Bonaparte’s Egyptian
campaign, a French soldier discovers a black basalt slab inscribed with
ancient writing near the town of Rosetta, about 35 miles north of
Alexandria. The irregularly shaped stone contained fragments of passages
written in three different scripts: Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics and
Egyptian demotic. The ancient Greek on the Rosetta Stone told
archaeologists that it was inscribed by priests honoring the king of
Egypt, Ptolemy V, in the second century B.C. More startlingly, the Greek
passage announced that the three scripts were all of identical meaning.
The artifact thus held the key to solving the riddle of hieroglyphics, a
written language that had been “dead” for nearly 2,000 years.
When Napoleon, an emperor known for his enlightened view of
education, art and culture, invaded Egypt in 1798, he took along a group
of scholars and told them to seize all important cultural artifacts for
France. Pierre Bouchard, one of Napoleon’s soldiers, was aware of this
order when he found the basalt stone, which was almost four feet long
and two-and-a-half feet wide, at a fort near Rosetta. When the British
defeated Napoleon in 1801, they took possession of the Rosetta Stone.
Several scholars, including Englishman Thomas Young made progress
with the initial hieroglyphics analysis of the Rosetta Stone. French
Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832), who had taught
himself ancient languages, ultimately cracked the code and deciphered
the hieroglyphics using his knowledge of Greek as a guide. Hieroglyphics
used pictures to represent objects, sounds and groups of sounds. Once
the Rosetta Stone inscriptions were translated, the language and culture
of ancient Egypt was suddenly open to scientists as never before.
The Rosetta Stone has been housed at the British Museum in London
since 1802, except for a brief period during World War I. At that time,
museum officials moved it to a separate underground location, along with
other irreplaceable items from the museum’s collection, to protect it
from the threat of bombs.
(More Events on This Day in History)
-
American Revolution
- 1779 Massachusetts begins ill-fated Penobscot expedition
-
Automotive
- 1942 George Washington Carver begins experimental project with Henry Ford
-
Civil War
- 1863 Morgan’s raiders defeated at Buffington Island
-
Cold War
- 1956 United States withdraws offer of aid for Aswan Dam
-
Crime
- 1991 Mike Tyson rapes a Miss Black America contestant
-
Disaster
- 1979 Oil tankers collide in Caribbean Sea
-
General Interest
- 1553 Lady Jane Grey deposed
- 1848 Seneca Falls Convention begins
-
Hollywood
- 1989 Sitcom actress murdered; death prompts anti-stalking legislation
-
Literary
- 1898 Emile Zola flees France
- 2009 “Angela’s Ashes” author Frank McCourt dies
-
Music
- 2003 Thousands of fans join the Miami funeral procession of Celia Cruz
-
Old West
- 1879 Doc Holliday kills for the first time
-
Presidential
- 1884 President Arthur proclaims power to impose quarantine on immigrants
-
Sports
- 1992 Nick Faldo wins third British Open
-
Vietnam War
- 1964 President Khanh calls for expanding the war
- 1972 Peace talks resume
-
World War I
- 1919 Cenotaph is unveiled in London
-
World War II
- 1943 America bombs Rome
No comments:
Post a Comment