Ptolemaic: Rosetta Stone

Art History

Ancient Egypt

Introduction
Egyptian Art
Materials & Techniques
Ancient Near Eastern & Ancient Egyptian Art
Old Kingdom: Seated Scribe
New Kingdom: House Altar with Akhenaten, Nefertiti and Three Daughters
Portrait Head of Queen Tiye with a Crown of Two Feathers
New Kingdom: Thutmose's Bust of Nefertiti
New Kingdom: Ramesses II
Ptolemaic: Rosetta Stone

Ptolemaic: Rosetta Stone Rosetta Stone, 196 B.C.E., granite, 114.4 cm x 72.3 x 27.9 cm or 45 x 28.5 x 11 inches, Ptolemaic Period (British Museum, London). Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker

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Ptolemaic: Rosetta Stone

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We're in the British Museum, and we're looking at
one of the most important objects in the collection –
the Rosetta Stone.
It's in a glass case, surrounded by people
who are taking pictures of it.
People love it! They do.
There [are] gifts in the gift shop about it.
You can get your own little Rosetta Stone.
You can get Rosetta Stone posters.
Exactly. On a mug.
I think you can get a doormat Rosetta Stone. Yeah.
But, the stone itself is historically incredibly important.
It allowed us for the first time to be able to understand,
to be able to read, to be able to translate hieroglyphics.
Hieroglyphics was the written language
of the ancient Egyptians.
And, until the mid-19th century,
we really didn't know what it said.
The language itself is pictorial,
and actually that led to one of the real confusions.
Because, I think that early archaeologists believed –
and linguists believed – that the pictures they could see –
(You can make out birds and snakes,
and various different kinds of forms.)
– actually referred in some way
to a specific thing in the world.
Right, so if you saw a bird,
it somehow referred to a bird.
And then, in fact, that's not the case. Right.
This is a far more sophisticated language.
And the Rosetta Stone was really what helped them
to understand that Egyptian hieroglyphics are not pictorial.
They're not pictographs.
They're actually phonetic.
So, all those things that look like pictures
actually represent sounds.
And that's how they were able to finally figure out –
and translate – ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.
And the reason we were able to do that
is because this stone said the same statement
three times, in three different languages.
So, the three languages are:
Ancient Greek, which is down at the bottom.
Now, that was the language of the administration.
That was the language of government.
And the reason for that is because
Alexander the Great had conquered Egypt,
and had set up this sort of Greek rule
in this Hellenistic era –
and that maintained itself in ancient Egypt.
Let's remember, we're talking around 200 B.C. here.
– which is actually getting close to the end
of the life of hieroglyphics, as well.
It would last for another few hundred years
before it died out completely.
So, this is really the tail end
of this 3000-year-long language.
So, the middle section is Demotic,
which actually means "the language of the people."
And it was this common language used by the Egyptians.
And the top, of course, was the sacred writing.
This was hieroglyphs. Right.
And that was the language that we really couldn't read –
– until we had the Rosetta Stone.
And we could see within the writing of the Rosetta Stone,
cartouches, which held the names of the rulers.
Cartouches are a kind of oblong shape
that contains the name of the ruler.
In this case, that would be Ptolemy the Fifth.
And by recognizing that ruler's name,
in these three different languages,
we found a way to begin to unlock hieroglyphics.
Now, that would take decades.
It was an incredibly difficult task.
And we haven't even talked yet about how this was found!
Napoleon has his army in Egypt.
And Napoleon's brought with him some –
what I guess we would call, sort of – archaeologist types.
And, one of those people who accompanied Napoleon
found – or came across – the Rosetta Stone.
It was being used as a part
of the foundation of a fort, in fact.
And of course, it would originally have been erected
in a temple, or near an ancient Egyptian temple.
And, I suppose it's important to say that
this is the bottom portion of a much larger stele –
or sort of stone tablet – that would have been quite tall.
So, Napoleon took it back.
Except, hold on a second –
because we're not in the Louvre.
We're in London, in the British Museum.
So, how does that work?
Well, the British defeated Napoleon,
and brought back the stone.
And a year or two later – I think, 1801 or 1802 –
it's brought to the British Museum.
And it's been here ever since.
Well, it's clearly still extremely popular.

Learn more about this work of art in context at smarthistory.khanacademy.org

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