RosettaStone

The inscription on the Rosetta Stone is a decree passed by a council of priests, the decree is inscribed on the stone three times, in hieroglyphic, demotic (a native Egyptian script) and classical Greek. The importance of this to Egyptology is immense. Soon after the end of the 4th century AD, when hieroglyphs had gone out of use, the knowledge of how to read and write them disappeared. In the early years of the 19th century, scholars were able to use the Greek inscription on this stone as the key to decipher them.

In the British Museum.
October 2007.