Ancient History Ch. 3: Egypt and The Rosetta Stone

Francis S. Betten S.J.

January 9, 2019

Ancient History Ch. 3: Egypt and The Rosetta Stone

The following is an excerpt (Chapter II, pages 17-18) from Ancient and Medieval History (1946) by Francis S. Betten, S.J. Although some information may be outdated, the Catholic historical perspective it provides remains pertinent. Use the link at the bottom of post to read the previous/following pages. Use Search to find specific topics or browse using the Resources tab above.

PART TWO: ORIENTAL HISTORY

CHAPTER III

DISCOVERIES IN EGYPT AND BABYLONIA

Upper Portion of the Rosetta Stone: About 1800 A.D. some soldiers of Napoleon I, while digging the foundations for a fort at the mouth of the Rosetta branch of the Nile (map, page 20) discovered a stone with three sets of writing, one of them in Greek. The French scholar Champollion surmised that all three had the same contents. By means of the Greek he first made out several proper names in one of the other sets, and finally succeeded in reading the whole. This Egyptian writing is called “hieroglyphic.” One of the two hieroglyphic sets is written in the hieroglyphs found on the great monuments; the other represented the simplified “demotic” script (§24). Thus a key to the Egyptian writing was found.

9. Very little was known of the ancient history of these countries until about a hundred years ago. Travelers in the lands of the Euphrates reported extensive remains of temples, palaces,and tombs, with inscriptions written in mysterious characters. Scholars at first set these letters down as some peculiar form of Hebrew or Chinese, or as mere ornamentations, or as the effect of worms or the weather. But in 1802 A.D. the German scholar Grotefend was able to read several royal names. Others by patient labor corrected and completed his studies. The kind of writing thus discovered is called cuneiform (§ 42). A happy accident furnished a clue to understanding the Egyptian system of writing. (See legends of pictures on pages 17 and 18.)

Rosetta Stone Zoomed in — Words from the Rosetta Stone: They are found in line 6 from top. (The vertical lines mark off the various groups, and are not found in the original.) The signs enclosed in the frame are the king’s name. This frame is called a cartouche. Reading the groups from right to left their meaning is: (1) There shall be erected; (2) a statue; (3) to the king of the south and the north; (4, the cartouche) Ptolemy, the everliving, beloved by (the god) Ptah. By this document the priests in solemn assembly decreed special honors to King Ptolemy V, in 190 b.c.

At first there was little to read; but new interest had been aroused. About 1850 scholars began extensive explorations in the east. Sites of forgotten cities, buried beneath desert sands, were discovered. Most of them contained numerous inscriptions on stone and brick, and large libraries with books written on “papyrus,” a sort of paper made from the papyrus reed which grew in the Nile. Part of these writings has been translated. Since 1880 the results have begun to appear in our schoolbooks. Very recent years have been the most fruitful of all in discoveries.