History glossary
Rosetta Stone
an inscribed stone that helped scholars decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs because it carried the same text in three scripts.
- Category
- Inscription
- Region
- Egypt
- Date range
- 196 BCE inscription; rediscovered 1799 CE
What it means
The Rosetta Stone was found in Egypt in 1799. Because it preserved the same decree in Greek, demotic, and hieroglyphic writing, scholars could compare known and unknown scripts. The Indus script has no equivalent bilingual text, which is one reason it remains undeciphered.
