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© Copyright 2000, Jim Loy
The Rosetta Stone was the original key to the decipherment of hieroglyphics. It was a damaged stone (much of the top is missing), found by Napoleon's invading army, at Rosetta (apparently French for Rashid) in northern Egypt, in 1799. It was captured by the British while still in Egypt, and is now in the British Museum. It is a stela (or stele, a stone with writing carved on it) with the same message (a decree from Ptolemy V) repeated three times, in hieroglyphics (Late Egyptian), in Demotic (another version of Egyptian), and in Greek. The first 26 or so lines are missing from the hieroglyphic part. The Rosetta Stone enabled Champollion and others to finally make progress deciphering hieroglyphics. Here are all 14 lines, as best I can do from examining photographs (with a few question marks for signs that I couldn't figure out):
There are many familiar words here (See My
Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary). A few of the words are not found in any
Middle Egyptian dictionary, because this is Late Egyptian. A few words are
spelled differently (
and 
is spelled backwards every time). And a few words are misspelled. The Egyptian
language was very free when it came to spelling. But some of the words above
are badly misspelled, mostly with missing signs. An example is the last
spelling of Ptolemy (line 14), which is missing a sign.