Tales of the Rosetta Stone Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sacred writings

The ancient Greeks used the term "hieroglyphics" because they believed the symbols were written as messages to the gods, and to some degree they were correct in their assumption. Hieroglyphics, the oldest writing developed in ancient Egypt, was used even after other scripts that were easier to write were developed. Used for official business, as well as religious messages, hieroglyphics was *not* picture writing; each picture was a phonogram, that represented syllables or individual sounds in words.

Other forms of writing eventually developed: hieratic was a cursive script used for less formal purposes, such as temple accounts and poems; demotic, a shorthand script, was an abbreviated form of writing used by merchants and traders.

Answer: Ptolemy V

Ptolemy V was the fifth ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty to rule ancient Egypt. The dynasty was famously founded after the death of Alexander the Great. Legends reveal that when Alexander was asked to name a successor, he proclaimed "To the strongest! His generals spent the next twenty-five years battling for control of the fragmented empire. Alexander had appointed Ptolemy, one of the bodyguards that served his generals, satrap of Egypt before his death. He captured Alexander's body (whoever had the body had the power), and eventually defeated other claimants to the throne of Egypt. He and his descendants were the last dynasty to rule Egypt, and dynastic history in Egypt came to a close with the death of Cleopatra.

Ptolemy V, also called Ptolemy Epiphanes, became pharaoh when he was five years old, after the murders of his mother and father by guardians who ruled as his regent. When he was officially crowned pharaoh at the age of twelve, Ptolemy V was dealing with both internal revolt and war with Antiochus III, the Seleucid king, and Philip V of Macedon.

Answer: It was issued to establish the divine cult after the coronation of Ptolemy V.

One of the dates on the Rosetta Stone corresponds to March 37, 196 BC, in the modern calendar. It was issued by a group of priests after the coronation of Ptolemy V during the ninth year of his reign. The decree states that in exchange for a gift of silver and grain to the temple, the priests promised to annually celebrate the birthday and coronation of the young pharaoh.

This was especially important to Ptolemy; the priests agreed to serve him as they would serve the other gods. The support of the priesthood was vital to the pharaoh, especially one like Ptolemy V, who was trying to consolidate his power.

A copy of the decree was placed in every temple inscribed in the language of the gods, which of course, was hieroglyphics, the language of documents, which was demotic, and the language of the Greeks, which was used by the Ptolemic government.

This type of stele was very common in ancient Egypt, dating all the way back to the Old Kingdom.

Answer: Granodiorite

At some point chalk was used to color the inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone to make them stand out; it was also covered with carnauba wax to protect the surface as people touched it. In the beginning, it was believed that the stone was black basalt. However, after it was cleaned, scholars determined that the stone was dark grey granodiorite with a pink vein running across the top left corner.

The rock is similar to granite quarried at Gebel Tingar on the west bank of the Nile. It is common to find Egyptian tablets made from granite, limestone, or slate that contain chiseled hieroglyphic writing.

However, hieroglyphic inscriptions are also found written on papyrus, which is paper that was made from the reeds that grew along the Nile.

Answer: Pierre-François Bouchard, during the Napoleonic Expedition

It is said that Pierre-François Bouchard, a lieutenant in Napoleon's army, saw the stele with inscriptions; he and Colonel d'Hautpoul, the commander of his group, agreed that it might be important.

Napoleon's campaign in Egypt included not only an army of soldiers, but a corps of technical experts that were part of the "Commission des Sciences et des Arts". Their "Description de l'Égypte" sparked an interest in the antiquities of Egypt. According to the legend, Napoleon's men shot the nose off the Sphinx while using it for target practice. In reality, an Arab historian wrote in the fifteenth century that it was destroyed by a man named Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr.

Answer: It was named for the nearby port town.

Called Rosetta by the French, the Egyptian port city of Rashid was founded in the ninth century. In 1799, Pierre-François Bouchard and other French soldiers were sent to Fort Julien, which is a couple of miles away from the city, to strengthen the French position there. Shortly after its discovery, the stone was sent to Cairo for study, and Napoleon himself inspected what was called "la Pierre de Rosette" before returning to France.

Answer: Part of a stone wall

It is not exactly clear how Pierre-François Bouchard found the stone; some claim that it was simply lying on the ground. One account states that it was part of an old wall of Fort Julien, which the French were rebuilding.

Scholars agreed that the Rosetta Stone is part of what was a much larger stele. However, no other fragments were found at the original site. It is broken on both sides, has a diagonal break at the bottom right, and is missing the first hieroglyphic lines. It is also believed that there was probably some sort of scene, possibly the king and the gods, that is also missing. The text in the middle, the demotic, is the best preserved.

Answer: Jean François Champollion

The secrets of hieroglyphic writing had been lost for quite some time; many believed that the writings were religions in nature, and for that reason might represent mystical symbols that would not be possible to translate into words. Champollion was a very gifted philologist who spoke Arabic and Coptic.

In 1806, at the age of sixteen, he wrote a paper on the decipherment of demotic, one of the ancient Egyptian forms of writing, that suggested Coptic and demotic were similar languages. By 1815 he had submitted a Coptic grammar and dictionary for publication.

Although there were many who worked at breaking the code, Thomas Young, from England, and Champollion, from France, made the most progress. In fact, there is much discussion regarding the rivalry between Young and Champollion; some believe Young should also be given credit.

It appears, however, that while Young's insight and published articles may have assisted Champollion in his translation, Champollion was the one who used the names of pharaohs to complete the decoding of the language and create a system of grammar; today he is known as the "Father of the Decipherment of Hieroglyphs."

Answer: Greek

The Greek text on the Rosetta Stone was the starting point in the decipherment of hieroglyphics. Scholars, of course, knew ancient Greek. However, the Greek language on the Rosetta Stone was the Greek of the Hellenistic Age; scholars struggled a bit to complete the translation.

Interestingly, Hellenistic Greek would have been the language of the royal family of Egypt at the time the Rosetta Stone was written! The reason the stone was written in three languages was so that all literate people in Egypt at the time could read it.

They were also hampered by the fact that the stone was not complete, as it was missing text on every side. By 1803 the first translation of the Greek text was published by Hubert-Pascal Ameilhon. The last sentence of the Greek text says, "Written in sacred and native and Greek characters." What a clue! Scholars now knew that the three languages displayed the same text!

Answer: British Museum

After Napoleon left Egypt in 1799, the French army was left under the command of General Jacques-François Menou, who transported artifacts, including the Rosetta Stone, with the army. In 1801, after being besieged in Alexandria by a force of British and Ottoman troops, Menou was forced to give up the artifacts under the terms of his surrender.

He argued that the artifacts belonged to the "Institut d'Égypte", Napoleon's scientific organization that had been founded in Cairo. The British, however, refused to lift the siege of Alexandria without the artifacts. During negotiations it was decided that the French scientists could keep specimens that were their private property; Menou's assertion that the Rosetta Stone was his private property was rejected.

The exact circumstances as to how the stone was turned over to the British are unknown.