Being found in 1799 by some French soldiers commanded my Napoleon, the Rosetta Stone to this day remains one of the most important findings in the history of the world. Tearing down a wall in Rashid, Egypt the Rosetta Stone was found. Little did they know this big thick stone would help decipher the lost and forgotten Egyptian writing systems. On July 19th, 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte and his French army were in the middle of their Egyptian Campaign a French engineer and soldier by the name of Pierre Francois-Xavier Bouchards discovered the four foot long stone (“Rosetta Stone Found”. The stone contained two languages, Egyptian and Greek, and the following three scripts used during the Egyptian era: Demotic, Greek, and hieroglyphics (Gill 1). Up to this point, no one was able to even begin to decrypt the writings left behind by the ancient Egyptians. The meanings to writings on pyramid walls and tombs were left unknown. The Rosetta Stone was discovered in a small village in the Delta called Rosetta. Napoleon, who was known for his love of art had brought along a group of scholars. He used these scholars to help locate and find art and artifacts throughout Egypt and gave orders to seize them. Pierre Bouchard, whom was not a …show more content…
The stone lists all the things that the pharaoh did that are good for all priests and the people of Egypt. The scripts were in a certain order, too. The order was Egyptian hieroglyphics, then the demotic which was the most popular language at that time, and at the bottom was Greek (Gill 1). “After praising the pharaoh for his generosity, it describes the siege of Lycopolis and the king’s good deeds for the temple” (Gill 1). Establishing a cult for the pharaoh was the stone’s main purpose. Upon further examination it was discovered that the Rosetta Stone was made way prior to the year it was found. The Rosetta Stone was carved in the year 196 B.C. (“The Rosetta Stone”