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Primary sourceArtifact196 BC

Rosetta Stone

196 BC

An ancient trilingual stele found by soldiers of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign in 1799, later taken by Britain and key to deciphering hieroglyphs.

Discovered by soldiers of Napoleon's Egyptian expedition, linking his campaign to the birth of Egyptology.

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Photograph of the Rosetta Stone, a large dark grey granite stone with its front face covered in rows of inscribed text in three scripts, set against a black background on a white base.
The Rosetta Stone, 196 BC. British Museum, London.

About this source

What it is

The Rosetta Stone is a stone slab carved in 196 BC with a decree written in Egyptian hieroglyphs, Egyptian Demotic script, and Ancient Greek. It was found in 1799 near Rosetta in Egypt and has been held by the British Museum since 1802.

Why it matters

French soldiers during Napoleon's invasion of Egypt discovered the stone, which later passed to Britain after France's defeat there. Because the same text appears in three scripts, scholars such as Jean-François Champollion used it to finally decode Egyptian hieroglyphs, founding the field of Egyptology. It shows how Napoleon's military campaigns also became scientific and cultural events.

Look closer

  • Why might having the same text in three scripts help translate an unknown language?
  • Why do you think the stone ended up in a British museum rather than in France or Egypt?
  • What does this object tell us about the connections between war, conquest, and the study of history?

This artifact is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Napoleon Bonaparte on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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