III.

Significance of the Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone was inscribed in 196 bc with a decree praising 13-year-old Egyptian king Ptolemy V on the first anniversary of his coronation. The inscription appears in three scripts, hieroglyphic (an ancient Egyptian script using symbols), demotic (a simplified Egyptian script used for everyday writing), and Greek (the language introduced after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great). Because scholars could read Greek with no problem and the three texts recorded the same decree, the Rosetta Stone was quickly recognized as a stupendous discovery.