Happy Rosetta Stone Day!

Rosetta1The chunk o’rock to the left is The Rosetta Stone (Dum! Dum! Dum!).

It was found today–July 15–back yonder in the year 1799 by Napoleon DynamiteBonaparte–well, actually by one of his men.

Now, thing is: The Rosetta Stone was instrumental in helping us figure out how to read Egyptian. Jean-Francois Champollion (an old, dead French dude who was then a young, alive French dude) deciphered hieroglyphics using help from the stone.

He was able to do this because the rock contains engravings of the same text in Greek, demotic script (the kind of script used by ordinary Egyptian folks in ancient times), and hieroglyphics (the more sacred way the Egyptian language was written). Since Greek was a known language, it was possible to figure out what the text as a whole said in the other two scripts.

YEE-HAW!

Ain’t linguistic discovery a hoot!

So anyway, now that the Rosetta Stone has been cracked (no pun intended, though look at the edges), if you want to learn hieroglyphics yourself, SEE HERE.

Also, GET THE STORY.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

3 thoughts on “Happy Rosetta Stone Day!”

  1. I’m stunned by the font size and the tidness of it all! I can’t write half so well on lined paper with a sharp pencil. It’s as beautiful in some ways as the Book of Kells.

  2. I’m stunned by the font size and the tidness of it all! I can’t write half so well on lined paper with a sharp pencil. It’s as beautiful in some ways as the Book of Kells.
    Do they know what instruments were used in it’s writing? I couldn’t find anything on this.

  3. Thx Jimmy, one of my all-time favorite stories, a real life mystery of the best sort. We celebrate it here. You know we do. Best, edp.

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