Ancient Egyptian Writing
Paragraph 1: The ancient Egyptians’ hieroglyphs (writing) could not be deciphered until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, a meter-high fragment of dark grey stone, in a place known as Rosetta (today’s el-Rashid). The Rosetta Stone has since become one of the most famous pieces of rock in the world. It was dug up by chance in 1799 by Napoleon Bonaparte’s soldiers, during the French occupation of Egypt. Fortunately the officer who found it realized it was a significant artifact and immediately ensured its safe-keeping. What made it special was that it had the same bit of text inscribed in three different scripts. The top section was written in formal hieroglyphs, which at the time they were carved, around 196 B.C.E., had been the traditional script for stone inscriptions. The middle section was written in the everyday script of literate Egyptians, the informal demotic hieroglyphs, and at the bottom was Egypt’s then language of officialdom, Greek. When the initial shoulder-high slab of stone, or stela (a decorated commemorative stone), had fallen from the wall of a temple, it broke in such a way that its bottom half included enough of the known Greek and the unknown Egyptian scripts for the correspondence between the scripts to be discovered. While parts of the surface were damaged, the bottom Greek script was able to provide some of the clues that eventually led the French scholar Jean-Francois Champollion to complete the hieroglyphs decipherment in 1822. With the ancient language unlocked, a more informed study of Egyptian culture could begin.
1. According to paragraph 1, how was the Rosetta Stone discovered?
O French scholars traveled to Rosetta to study the hieroglyphs there.
O Napoleon Bonaparte ordered his soldiers to search for artifacts containing hieroglyphs.
O Several hieroglyphic scripts indicated the location of the Rosetta Stone.
O A French officer recognized the value of an ancient artifact.
