Rosetta Stone

Sculpture

Museum of Antiquities - University of Saskatchewan

Catalogue Image

2015-00-00

Name/Title

Rosetta Stone

Entry/Object ID

81H0241

Description

Trilingual inscription in three bands: hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek script.

Type of Sculpture

Relief

Artwork Details

Medium

Resin

Context

The Rosetta Stone is the surviving part of a great basalt monument or stele bearing an inscription dated to the 9th year (196 BC) of Ptolemy V Epiphanes (210-180 BC). The Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt, of whom Cleopatra was the last (died 30 BC), were of Macedonian origin and spoke Greek. This decree, voted by the priests of Egypt at Memphis, is repeated in two languages--Egyptian (in both hieroglyphic and demotic scripts) and Greek. It records the good deeds of Ptolemy and the honours proposed for the twelve-year-old King. Copies of the decree were to have been erected in many of the temples of Egypt. The decipherment of the Rosetta Stone was begun by the French scholar Champollion in 1816. Through the Rosetta Stone and other similar bilingual inscriptions, scholars were at last able to translate the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt.

Made/Created

Date made

196 BCE - 196 BCE

Time Period

Hellenistic

Ethnography

Culture/Tribe

Egyptian

Dimensions

Dimension Description

Overall

Height

96 cm

Width

76 cm

Depth

5.5 cm

Research Notes

Research Type

Reference

Notes

Andrews, Carol. Rosetta Stone. London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1984. Public: No

Research Type

Reference

Notes

Sharpe, Samuel. Rosetta Stone in Hieroglyphic and Greek; with Translations. London: John Russell Smith, 1871. Public: No

Research Type

Reference

Notes

British Museum. The British Museum and its Collections: British Museum, 1982. 28. Public: No