The Rosetta Stone artifact from 1799 has helped historians gain a deeper understanding of ancient cultures by providing a passage written in three scripts: hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek. Discovered by Napoleon's army in Egypt, it has been housed in the British Museum since it was given to the British after their defeat of France in the Treaty of Alexandria in 1801. The Rosetta Stone text helped historians crack hieroglyphics because it was the first document found with the same passage in three different scripts.