rosetta stone |
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| • | The Rosetta Stone is a dark granite stone (often incorrectly identified as basalt) with writing on it in two languages, Egyptian and Greek, using three scripts, Hieroglyphic, Demotic Egyptian and Greek. Because Greek was well known, the stone was the key to deciphering the hieroglyphs. Ptolemy assumed the crown at the tender age of 5 after a rather turbulent time in Egyptian history. The young ruler was faced with the daunting task of reclaiming lands lost to various invaders and reunifying his country's populace. As an attempt to reestablish legitimacy for the ruler and create a royal cult, Ptolemy's priests issued a series of decrees (a judicial decision or order). The decrees were inscribed on stones and erected throughout Egypt. The Rosetta stone is a copy of the decree issued in the city of Memphis, Egypt. The same Ptolemaic decree of 196 BC is written on the stone in the three scripts. The Greek part of the Rosetta Stone begins: Basileuontos tou neou kai paralabontos tén basileian para tou patros... (The new king, having received the kingship from his father...) It is a decree from Ptolemy V, describing various taxes herepealed (one measured in ardebs (Greek artabai) per aroura), and instructing that statues be erected in temples and that the decree be published in the writing of the words of gods (hieroglyphs), the writing of the people (demotic), and the Wynen (Greek; the word is cognate with Ionian) language. The Greeks had the habit of making bilinguals in territories they occupied, and in this case we have Egyptian, and Greek. Thus the Egyptian hieroglyphs, and the Egyptian Demotic (citizen text, as in democratic), was written against the Greek language, as the new occupiers of pharaonic rule, following Alexander the Great's conquest. The Rosetta Stone is stone three in a series of 3, a stone each for Ptolemy III, Ptolemy IV, and the Rosetta Stone, for Ptolemy V. Leap Year is implemented in Stone 1, the Stone of Canopus, for Ptolemy III. There are approximately two co Source: [wikipedia: rosetta stone] |
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