Hieroglyphs: Suitable for a Priestly Decreeĭemotic: The Cursive Egyptian Script that Was The Daily 'Language of the People'Īncient Greek: The Language of The Ptolemies And Administration (Egypt Was Ruled By The Greeks At this Point) The stone is a broken part of what was a much larger stone slab and its message is etched into it in three types of writing. Related: Everything You Need To Know About Visiting Egypt's Mystical Valley Of The kingsĪccording to the British Museum, the Rosetta Stone is a fragment of an ancient stela (an inscribed slab) that was inscribed in three languages and would prove to be the key to unlocking the mysterious hieroglyphic script of ancient Egypt. Transport To England: The Rossetta Stone Arrived in England in 1802 Then the Rossetta Stone became the property of the British (under the terms of the Treaty of Alexandria 1801) - together with anything else the British wanted that the French had found. And in 1801 the British managed to defeat the cut-off French forces in Egypt. While Napoleon was an almost unbeatable general at land, at sea the French never did too well against the British (to put it mildly). They found it while digging the foundations for a fort in the town of Rashid (or Rosetta) in preparation for a battle with the Ottoman Empire (who nominally ruled Egypt at this time). A find that was set to change our understanding of the ancient world. All of that is a long story but what's important is that the French soldiers stumbled upon the Rosetta Stone. Napoleon had led an expedition to capture Egypt in an effort to cut Britain off from its trade with India. On 15 July 1799, the French and the British were busy trading blows (like they were in the habit of doing back then). The Story of How it Was Discovered and how The British Pinched it

Rosetta stone cracked