The Rosetta Stone is a dark gray granite slab, it is 112.3 cm high, 75.7 cm wide and weighs almost 800 kg. It is actually a fragment of a larger stele whose remaining part has been lost during the time. But what is written exactly written on it? On it is written the text of a priest which affirms the cult of Pharaoh Ptolemy V Epiphanes.
This stone is one of the most important discoveries of the modern period, this because that the inscription on its surface was in three different scripts: Ptolemaic hieroglyphics, demotic and ancient Greek .Hieroglyphs were the official writing of the pharaonic kingdom; demotic was the popular, cursive version of hieroglyphic writing (popular Egyptian); Greek was the language and writing of the ruling dynasty in Egypt, the Ptolemies, from the conquest of Alexander the Great. Since the stele is fragmentary, the text of the inscription is incomplete; however, the presence of the three different forms of writing was the real method that helped the deciphering the Egyptian hieroglyphics, that till that moment were still a fascinating mistery.
The Rosetta Stone was discovered by Pierre François Xavier Bouchard in 1799 near Fort Saint Julien el-Rashid that for the Europeans was known as “rosetta” in the Nile Delta.
The commander, General Menou, understood the importance of the find and sent the stele to Alexandria. Casts and copies were made, but the original at the end finally found its definitive location at the British Museum in London, where it was studied and decifrathed.
At the end was Thomas Young that was able to deciphrate the gerogliphics.
But let’s go back on what there is written on the stone, like I said before It was a text written by a priest but more in particular what does the stone say?
Once the hieroglyphics were deciphered, the text written on the Rosetta Stone was revealed. The content of the stele is nothing more than a decree of the priests of Memphis from 196 BC. dedicated to the pharaoh Ptolemy V Epiphanes, who had the merit of renovating the temple of the god Ptha in Memfi.
It says all the advantages that came with the new pharaon, all the taxes that he cancelled, and this was written (like I said before) in three languages because everyone must have the possibility to see how good was the new pharaon.
This stone was only one of the most, this because these stone had to be put in all the new built temples that were erected during the pharaon Ptolemy reign.
So like you can imagine this discover changed all our knowledge about the Egyptians because with this we were able to read all the geroglipichs that were written on that period papyrus and on the walls of the most iconic Egyptian buildings, the Pyramids.
Sources
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stele_di_Rosetta