The Rosetta Stone is an ancient Egyptian stone carved with a decree from Ptolemy V in three scripts: Egyptian hieroglyphs, demotic Egyptian, and ancient Greek. It was discovered by French soldiers in 1799 and is now housed and displayed at the British Museum. The stone helped scholars decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs and better understand ancient Egyptian history.

1. Rosetta Stone
It is an important rock.
It was made in 196 BC, when
Egypt had a new boy-king,
Ptolemy V, whose family was
originally Greek.
On the stone was written an
official announcement of gifts
made by the king to the
Egyptian temples.

2. • The Rosetta Stone is one of the most famous
objects in the British Museum but the actual
contents of its inscription is less well-known.

3. • The side of the Rosetta Stone with an
inscription made by the British Army.

4. • It was dug up in 1799 by French soldiers
of Napoleon Bonaparte, who were
enlarging a fort.
After the British defeated the French, it
was handed to the British Army who sent
the Stone to the British Museum, where
it's been since 1802 (apart from a few trips
such as two years stored underground
during the First World War).

5. Conserving the Rosetta Stone
• In 1999, the Rosetta Stone was the
centrepiece of the British Museum
exhibition Cracking Codes. As part of the
exhibition preparations, the
opportunity was taken to investigate and
clean this famous object.

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