Rosetta stone - the key to the mysteries of Egypt

Egyptology, originated in the eighteenth century, was initially based on the bombast of eminent scientists and original, but unconfirmed theories of young researchers. Egypt, whose hieroglyphs did not yield to decoding, beckoned and frightened with its mystery. Indeed, Egyptology began to develop only after a key had fallen into the hands of scientists, Deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. Rosetta stone - this was the name of the long-awaited hint - has its own, almost detective story.

It all began with a work that the great philosopher and scholar 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. His work was dedicated to Egypt, calling it "the key to Europe." Written in 1672, the treatise of Leibniz was read by another French monarch more than a hundred years later. The idea of the scientist liked the Emperor Napoleon, and in 1799 he sent a military fleet to Egypt with the goal of destroying the English military units that occupied then 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 a rich collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts, but the secrets of civilization as before Were closed for seven locks. The key to all these locks was the Rosetta Stone. He found a member of the expedition Bouchard during the construction of the military fort St. Julien. The fort was erected near the city of Rosetta, from which the stone was named. Defeated in 1801, the French left Egypt, taking with them all the rarities found. Then the collection got to England, where it became the foundation of the Egyptian department of the British Museum.

What was the Rosetta stone? It was a monolith of black basalt with carved inscriptions on it. Later it turned out that the stone contains three versions of the text, written in three languages. The text was a decree of the priests of the city of Memphis, in which the priesthood thanks Pharaoh Ptolemy V and gives him the honorary rights. The first version of the decree was written in Egyptian hieroglyphs, and the third inscription was the translation of the same decree to the Greek language. 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 by demotic signs - the cursive writing of the ancient Greek language.

Rosetta stone was researched by many scientists. The first to decipher the inscriptions of the stone was the French orientalist de Sasi, and the Swedish scientist Okerblad continued his work. The hardest part was to read the hieroglyphic part of the inscription, since the secret of such a letter was lost even in ancient Roman times. Beginning to decipher the hieroglyphs Englishman Young, but to achieve complete success, the Frenchman Champollion succeeded. He proved that the hieroglyphic system basically consists of phonetic and alphabetic signs. During his short life this scientist managed to compile an extensive dictionary of the ancient Egyptian language and to formulate its grammatical rules. Thus, the role of the Rosetta Stone in the development of Egyptology proved to be truly invaluable.