Egyptology, which originated in the eighteenth century, was initially based on the bombast of eminent scientists and the original but unverified theories of young researchers. Egypt, whose hieroglyphs could not be deciphered, beckoned and frightened with its mystery. Egyptology really began to develop only after the key fell into the hands of scientists,
deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Rosetta Stone - this is how the long-awaited clue was named - has its own, almost detective, history.
It all started with a composition that the great philosopher and scientist Leibniz wrote for Louis XIV. Being not only a scientist, but also a politician, Leibniz tried to divert the attention of the French monarch from his native Germany. The scientist devoted his essay to Egypt, calling it "the key to Europe." Written in 1672, Leibniz's treatise was read by another Frenchmonarch over a hundred years later. Emperor Napoleon liked the idea of the scientist, and in 1799 he sent a navy to Egypt in order to defeat the English military units that then occupied the country of the pyramids. The French fleet was joined by scientists who were interested in the ancient civilization of Egypt.
Egypt remained under French rule for three years. During this time, scientists have collected the richest collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts, but the secrets of civilization are still
mu were closed by seven locks. The key to all these locks was the Rosetta Stone. He was found by a member of the Bouchard expedition during the construction of the military fort Saint-Julien. The fort was built near the city of Rosetta, from which the stone got its name. Having suffered a defeat in 1801, the French left Egypt, taking with them all the rarities found. Then the collection came to England, where it became the basis of the Egyptian department of the British Museum.
What was the Rosetta Stone? It was a monolith of black bas alt with inscriptions carved into it. Subsequently, it turned out that the stone contains three versions of the text, written in three languages. The text turned out to be a decree of the priests of the city of Memphis, in which the priesthood thanks the pharaoh Ptolemy V and grants him honorary rights. The first version of the decree was written in Egyptian hieroglyphs, and the third inscription was a translation of the same decree into Greek. Comparing these inscriptions, scientists correlated the hieroglyphs with the Greek alphabet, thus obtaining the key to the rest of the ancient Egyptian inscriptions. The third inscription was made in demoticsigns - cursive ancient Greek.
The Rosetta Stone has been studied by many scientists. The French orientalist de Sacy was the first to decipher the inscriptions of the stone, and the Swedish scientist Åkerblad continued his work. The most difficult thing was to read the hieroglyphic part of the inscription, since the secret of such writing was lost in ancient Roman times. The Englishman Young began to decipher the hieroglyphs, but the Frenchman Champollion managed to achieve complete success. He proved that the hieroglyphic system mainly consists of phonetic and alphabetic characters. During his short life, this scientist managed to compile an extensive dictionary of the ancient Egyptian language and form its grammatical rules. Thus, the role of the Rosetta Stone in the development of Egyptology turned out to be truly invaluable.
