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N0KFQ > TODAY 19.07.14 16:00l 49 Lines 2242 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Jul 19
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Sent: 140719/1500Z 26669@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.60
Jul 19, 1799:
Rosetta Stone found
On this day in 1799, during Napoleon Bonaparte's Egyptian
campaign, a French soldier discovers a black basalt slab
inscribed with ancient writing near the town of Rosetta, about 35
miles north of Alexandria. The irregularly shaped stone contained
fragments of passages written in three different scripts: Greek,
Egyptian hieroglyphics and Egyptian demotic. The ancient Greek on
the Rosetta Stone told archaeologists that it was inscribed by
priests honoring the king of Egypt, Ptolemy V, in the second
century B.C. More startlingly, the Greek passage announced that
the three scripts were all of identical meaning. The artifact
thus held the key to solving the riddle of hieroglyphics, a
written language that had been "dead" for nearly 2,000 years.
When Napoleon, an emperor known for his enlightened view of
education, art and culture, invaded Egypt in 1798, he took along
a group of scholars and told them to seize all important cultural
artifacts for France. Pierre Bouchard, one of Napoleon's
soldiers, was aware of this order when he found the basalt stone,
which was almost four feet long and two-and-a-half feet wide, at
a fort near Rosetta. When the British defeated Napoleon in 1801,
they took possession of the Rosetta Stone.
Several scholars, including Englishman Thomas Young made progress
with the initial hieroglyphics analysis of the Rosetta Stone.
French Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832), who
had taught himself ancient languages, ultimately cracked the code
and deciphered the hieroglyphics using his knowledge of Greek as
a guide. Hieroglyphics used pictures to represent objects, sounds
and groups of sounds. Once the Rosetta Stone inscriptions were
translated, the language and culture of ancient Egypt was
suddenly open to scientists as never before.
The Rosetta Stone has been housed at the British Museum in London
since 1802, except for a brief period during World War I. At that
time, museum officials moved it to a separate underground
location, along with other irreplaceable items from the museum's
collection, to protect it from the threat of bombs.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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