196 BCEReputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented
The Rosetta Stone
On the timeline · around 196 BCE ·
What happened
A council of priests issued a decree honoring the young king Ptolemy V, inscribed on a stone slab in three scripts — Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic, and ancient Greek. Rediscovered in 1799, the Rosetta Stone let scholars — decisively Jean-François Champollion in the 1820s — finally decipher hieroglyphs.
Why it matters
Because the same text appears in a known language (Greek) and in hieroglyphs, the stone became the key that unlocked ancient Egyptian writing and the whole civilization's records.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Rosetta Stone · Reputable source
- British Museum. Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rosetta Stone · Reputable source