II.

Finding the Rosetta Stone

In 1798 French general Napoleon Bonaparte sent a naval fleet to challenge British power in Egypt. Many French scholars traveled with the fleet, including geographers, geologists, botanists, and linguists. During France’s three-year occupation of the Nile Valley, the French expedition collected a vast amount of information about Egypt and a great number of Egyptian antiquities. The most spectacular of these antiquities was the Rosetta Stone, which was found in 1799 at a fort at Rashîd, a town near the mouth of the Nile that was known as Rosetta to Europeans.

Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign foundered, and his forces surrendered to Britain in 1801. Under the subsequent treaty, the Rosetta Stone, along with many other Egyptian antiquities, became the property of Britain. These antiquities formed the basis of the Egyptian collection of the British Museum in London. The Rosetta Stone has been on display at the British Museum since 1802. The stone was long thought to be of basalt but is now believed to be a type of volcanic rock that resembles granite and is known as granitoid.