The Rosetta Stone: the story of the decoding of hieroglyphics

214 Pages·2002·46.912 MB·English

by  SOLÉ, Robert, VALBELLE, Dominique

TheRosetta
Stone The
story of the
decoding of
hieroglyphics
RobeSrtolé& h o
Dominique
Valbelle
Napoleon's Egyptian expedition may have
beena military and political fiasco. But it left
onelastinglegacy- thediscipline of
Egyptology ...
In July17g99a French officer serving in the
Delta madean interesting discovery. A granite
block unearthednearthe small town of
Rosettaboretexts in three different scripts -
Greek, demotic Egyptian and hieroglyphs. For
the first time therewasarealhope ofdecoding
Egyptian writing. The Stone was soon stolen
from the French by the British Army and
removed to the British Museum in London, the
gift ofHisGraciousMajesty,KingGeorge II.
Now there began a remarkable and highly
competitive intellectual adventure in which
some ofthebest minds ofthe time took part.
In particular, Thomas Young, an English
physician and polymath, and Johann David
Åkerblad, a Swedish diplomat, made valiant
progress towards a solution, but the code was
cracked by the driven and formidable French
orientalistJean-François Champollion. The
texts of Ancient Egypt could now be read again
after fourteen centuries.
Herea novelist of international reputation and
a leading Egyptologist combine their skills to
coverallaspects of this engrossing story with
authority and grace.

The
Rosetta Stone

The
Rosetta Stone
ROBERT SOLÉ &
DOMINIQUE VALBELLE
TRANSLATED BY STEVEN RENDALL
FOUR WALLS EIGHT WINDOWS
NEWYORK / LONDON
2002
Editions du Seuil 1999
Translation copyright Steven Rendall 2001
Published in the United States by
Four Walls Eight Windows
39 West 14th Street, room 503
New York, NY 1001
Visit our website at http://www.4W8W.com
Originaly published as La Pierre de Rosette by Editions du Seuil, Paris 1999
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a data
base or other retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means,
including mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book has been filed with the Library of
Congress.
6 2
10 8 7 5 4 3 1
First printing April 2002
Printed in the United States of America
Credits for platesbetweenpp 88 and 89
The fort of Abukir, Ahouse nearRosetta,Hassan Kachefs palace in Cairo,The hieroglyphic in-
scription from the Description de 'Égypte, The demoic inscription, The Greek inseription:
Michel Sidhom, Institut d'Orient,Paris
Afar-fetched explanation of Egyptian rellgion by Athanasius Kircher:JeanVigne
Thomas Young; Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sancy:Jean-François Champollion: Roger-Viollet
Edme François Jomard: O Bibliothèque centrale M.N.H.N., Paris
The Rosetta Stone after being cleaned in 1998: Copyright the British Museum
A complete new edition of the text and plates of the Description de légypte, with a new com-
mentary on the plates, is available from Michel Sidhom, Institut d'Orient, Parıs (www.institut-
orient.com)
The text illustrations of pp. 11 and 43 are also © Michel Sidhom. The Kircher engraving on
p. 19 is courtesy Jean Vigne.
The hieroglyph decorating the text is a modern version, by Peter Campbell, of the hierogiyph
sesh, "write."
Contents
Listofllustrations
Vi
Acknowledgements vit
I Fort Julien
2 The thirty-first session 6
3 Sacred signs and symbols I4
With the point of acompass
24
5 Thespoilsofwar 2
6 KingGeorge's gift
37
Description, for want ofsomething better
42
8 Ảkerblad's 'alphabet'
46
9 Champollion goes to work
57
I0 Signed 'ABCD'
63
II Three related scripts
72
I2 The letter to M. Dacier 78
I3 Ideas and sounds
87
I4 A science is born g6
I5 Deciphers by the hundreds IOI
I6 The magic ofa script I08
I7 The fate ofa stone II8
Appendices
i The Memphis Decree
I27
ii Other bilingual stelae
I35
iii ThomasYoung'sintuitions
I39
iv Champollion's lecture
L47
Chronology rş6
Notes I60
Bibliography
I72
Indexofnames r8o