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