Rosetta stone

Ro·set·ta stone

R0309600 (rō-zĕt′ə)n. A basalt tablet bearing inscriptions in Greek and in Egyptian hieroglyphic and demotic scripts that was discovered in 1799 near Rosetta, a town of northern Egypt in the Nile River delta, and provided the key to the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Rosetta stone

n 1. (Archaeology) a basalt slab discovered in 1799 at Rosetta, dating to the reign of Ptolemy V (196 bc) and carved with parallel inscriptions in Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic characters, and Greek, which provided the key to the decipherment of ancient Egyptian texts 2. (Linguistics) a basalt slab discovered in 1799 at Rosetta, dating to the reign of Ptolemy V (196 bc) and carved with parallel inscriptions in Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic characters, and Greek, which provided the key to the decipherment of ancient Egyptian texts

Roset′ta stone`

n. a stone slab, found in 1799 near Rosetta, bearing inscriptions in Greek, hieroglyphic, and demotic characters, enabling the decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Rosetta Stone

An inscribed basalt slab dating from around 196 BC, found near Rosetta, a town in northern Egypt, in 1799. Because it carried the same text in hieroglyphics, demotic Egyptian, and Greek, it was of vital use in deciphering hieroglyphics.

Thesaurus

Noun

Rosetta Stone - a part of an inscribed granite stela that was originally about six feet tall and was set up in 196 BC; the inscriptions in hieroglyphics and Demotic and Greek gave the first clues to the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics

Translations

Rosetta Stone

1. A tablet found near Rosetta, Egypt, in 1799. Carved with Greek, demotic, and hieroglyphic inscriptions, it became the key to deciphering ancient Egyptian writing. The discovery of the Rosetta Stone made ancient Egypt accessible to us today.2. By extension, an important clue to understanding something that is challenging or puzzling. Don't worry, this map will be the Rosetta stone that gets us out of this cave. I've been struggling with this experiment, but these new results may prove to be the Rosetta stone that makes everything else comprehensible.See also: stone

Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone:

see under RosettaRosetta
, former name of Rashid
, city (1986 pop. 51,789), N Egypt, in the Nile River delta. The city once dominated the region's rice market; rice milling and fish processing are the main industries of modern Rashid. Founded in the 9th cent.
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Rosetta Stone

a basalt slab with identical inscriptions in Egyptian hieroglyphics and demotic writing and in Greek. It was discovered in 1799 by the Frenchman Bouchard (Bous-sard), an officer of the French Army in Egypt, during the construction of Fort St. Julien, near Rosetta (Rashid) on the western arm of the Nile in the Nile delta. The stone is now in London’s British Museum. The texts were inscribed in 196 B. C. by Egyptian priests and represent an expression of thanks to Ptolemy V Epiphanes, who ruled from 204 B.C. to 180 B.C. Attempts to decipher the Egyptian texts were undertaken by the French orientalist Sylvestre de Sacy, the Swedish diplomat J. D. Akerblad, and the English physicist T. Young. The hieroglyphic text was deciphered by J.-F. Champollion in 1822, thus marking the beginning of the study of Egyptian hieroglyphics.

REFERENCE

Livshits, I. G. “Deshifrovka egipetskikh ieroglifov Shampol’onom.” In J.-F. Champollion, O egipetskom ieroglificheskom alfavite. Leningrad, 1950. (Translated from French.)

Rosetta Stone

inscribed in three languages; key to hieroglyphics. [Fr. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 935]See: Discovery