Cracking the Rosetta code: How a black slab of stone unlocked a world to an ancient Egyptian civilization 

A new British Museum exhibition marks 200 years since scholars cracked the code of the Rosetta Stone, pictured. (© The Trustees of the British Museum)
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Updated 14 October 2022
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Cracking the Rosetta code: How a black slab of stone unlocked a world to an ancient Egyptian civilization 

  • For centuries, ancient Egypt was shrouded in darkness until a discovery of a slab of stone that put Egyptologists to the test
  • The 3,000-year-old Rosetta Stone, engraved in three different languages, would prove to be the key to understanding ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs

LONDON: From a military perspective, the French invasion of Egypt in 1798, an attempt to disrupt British trade and influence in North Africa and India, was a complete failure. For the world’s understanding of 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian history, however, it would prove to be an accidental triumph.

An army of 50,000 men under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte landed at Alexandria on July 2, 1798, and over the next three years there were a series of victories, and the occasional defeat, for the French troops in Egypt and Syria.

But after the British navy sank Napoleon’s fleet in Aboukir Bay at the Battle of the Nile on July 25, 1799, the dwindling, disease-ravaged French army, harried by Ottoman and British forces, found itself trapped in a hostile, alien land. With no way out, and no chance of reinforcement, the end was inevitable.

Napoleon knew this, and on the night of Aug. 22, 1799, he abandoned his troops and slipped back to Paris and his ultimate destiny — in 1804, he would be crowned emperor of France.

The remains of his army in Egypt clung on, even after Napoleon’s successor as commander was assassinated, until it finally surrendered to the British at Alexandria on Sept. 2, 1801.

As part of the expedition, Napoleon had ordered the wholesale looting of antiquities to be taken back to France. But, after the French surrender, most of these fell into the hands of the British. Among the spoils shipped back to the British Museum was a block of polished stone engraved with writing in three different languages — ancient Greek, Demotic, and Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Discovered in July 1799 by a French army engineer who had been strengthening the defenses of a captured 15th-century Ottoman fort near Rosetta on the west bank of the Nile, the object became known as the Rosetta Stone.




Detail of The Book of the Dead of Queen Nedjmet, papyrus, Egypt, 1070 BC, 21st Dynasty. (© The Trustees of the British Museum)

It would prove to be the key to understanding ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Although many European scholars were fluent in ancient Greek, it would be more than two decades before they were able to crack the Rosetta code. When they did, it was a landmark moment in Egyptology, which the British Museum is celebrating this month with a major new exhibition that brings together a collection of more than 240 objects, including the Rosetta Stone.

The exhibition, “Hieroglyphs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt,” coincides with the 200th anniversary of the final breakthrough by French philologist and orientalist Jean-Francois Champollion in 1822.

“Deciphering the hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone unlocked 3,000 years of Egyptian history,” Ilona Regulski, curator of Egyptian written culture at the British Museum, told Arab News.

“Until then, nobody knew how far back the ancient Egyptian civilization went, or how long it lasted. But after his breakthrough, Champollion was able to translate the names of kings and establish a royal chronology which went back much farther in time than anyone had previously realized. 

“Very soon, there also came the understanding that this was a complex civilization that had relationships with its neighbors, sometimes peaceful, sometimes violent, and step by step we came to understand the society better.

“From the Greek historians, who reported some practices that they saw, we knew that the ancient Egyptians mummified their dead. But we didn’t really understand how these people lived and experienced their world.”




Temple lintel of King Amenemhat III, Hawara, Egypt, 12th Dynasty, 1855–08 BC. (© The Trustees of the British Museum)

Cracking the Rosetta code was a complex business that tested the minds of European academics. Although the stone featured three translations of the same decree, they were not alike word for word.

“Champollion and others started by looking at the Greek text and identifying words that appeared often, for example, the word for temple, or the title basileus (a term for monarch),” said Regulski. “They looked at the demotic text to see if there was a cluster of signs that appeared more or less in the same place.”

It was a reasonable start, but a process frustrated by the fact, not initially appreciated, that neither ancient Egyptian nor demotic were alphabet-based scripts, and that any one word could be spelled in many different ways in the same document.

Eventually, a sign list, a kind of ancient Egyptian dictionary, was created, “but it was not enough to understand the entire text, or to use it to read other inscribed objects,” said Regulski.

It was Champollion who finally figured out that hieroglyphics was a hybrid system.

“There are alphabetic signs, but also single signs that represent two or three letters, or even entire words,” said Regulski. “And some are silent signs, what we call ‘determinatives’ in Egyptology. You don’t read them in any way, but they indicate the meaning of the preceding word, telling you whether it’s a verb or a noun.”

Basically, hieroglyphics “appears to be a very simple, symbol-based language, but it’s much more complicated than that, and much more complex than an alphabetic script, and that took a long time to figure out.”




Temple lintel of King Amenemhat III, Hawara, Egypt, 12th Dynasty, 1855–08 BC. (© The Trustees of the British Museum)

The script on the Rosetta Stone turned out to be a decree written in 196 B.C. by priests at Memphis, recognizing the authority of the Ptolemaic pharaoh Ptolemy V. It would have been written originally on papyrus, with copies distributed around the kingdom so the text could be engraved on stone slabs, or “stelae,” for display in temples throughout Egypt.

Over the following decades, nine other partial copies of the decree would be discovered at sites across Egypt. But the Rosetta Stone is the most complete and, without it, for example “the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun,” excavated by the British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922, “would have looked very different,” said Regulski.

“It would have been difficult for Carter to identify the king, which is quite crucial, and his place in the context of the chronology of the 18th dynasty. We would just have a beautiful tomb with beautiful things.”

By the standards of ancient Egypt, the Rosetta Stone is not that ancient. “For us as Egyptologists,” said Regulski, “the stone, from about 200 B.C., comes very late in the story of hieroglyphics, a writing system that first came into use in about 3250 B.C.”

And in 200 B.C., hieroglyphics were already on the way out.

“The first really important change in Egypt was the use of Greek as the administrative language,” said Regulski.

“When Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332 B.C., people were already speaking Greek; the language was already circulating from the eighth century onwards, because of trade and because there were lots of Greek mercenaries who fought in the Egyptian army and settled in the country.

“But from Alexander the Great onward, and especially in the Ptolemaic periods, Greek became the language of administration and slowly pushed Egyptian out.”




Clockwise from left: Statue of a scribe, limestone, Egypt, 6th Dynasty. (Musée du Louvre); a casket with hieroglyphs on its side (British Museum); a Mummy bandage of Aberuai, linen, Saqqara, Egypt, Ptolemaic period. (Musée du Louvre). 

Regardless of the historical context of the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, and its seizure by the British, “for the field of Egyptology, and for Egypt, it is definitely something to celebrate,” said Regulski.

“Today, there are many Egyptologists in the world, including our colleagues in Egypt, and we all work together, a huge community trying to refine our knowledge of ancient Egypt, which all came out of this one venture.”

Regulski, who spent two years working alongside Egyptian colleagues at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, could not be drawn on the vexed subject of whether the Rosetta Stone should be returned to its country of origin.

More than 100,000 artifacts from Egypt’s rich past will be housed in the Grand Egyptian Museum, currently nearing completion at a site west of Cairo, close to the Giza pyramids.

Among them will be the 5,400 treasures entombed with Tutankhamun more than 3,300 years ago, including his iconic death mask, which, after decades of touring the world, will finally come to rest where they belong.

However, the Rosetta Stone, the key to understanding it all, will remain in Britain.

The British general who accompanied the stone back to Britain in 1801 after it was taken from the French, chose to see it and 20 other pieces not as loot, but as “a proud trophy of the arms of Britain — not plundered from defenseless inhabitants, but honorably acquired by the fortune of war.”

The British Museum exhibition will feature the French capitulation document, on loan from the UK’s National Archives and displayed for the first time. This, said a spokesperson for the British Museum, is “the legal agreement which included the transfer of the Rosetta Stone to Britain ... as a diplomatic gift ... signed by all parties; representatives of the Egyptian, French and British governments.”




Cartonnage and mummy of the lady Baketenhor. (Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums)

Today, an Egyptian government might justifiably take issue with the description of an officer of the Ottoman army as a rightful custodian of Egyptian heritage. 

Certainly, at the time, no thought was given to whether the Rosetta Stone and other antiquities ought to remain in Egypt, a question that is becoming ever more acute today, in an era when pressure is mounting on Western institutions such as the British Museum to return the spoils of imperial wars and adventures.

“The only thing I would say is that having worked closely with Egyptian curators at the museum, it’s not a priority for many of them,” said Regulski. “I find it a bit sad that our relationship is framed in this way, about giving back objects or not, because our relationship with our Egyptian colleagues is about so much more than which individual objects went to this place, or that.

“It’s about celebrating ancient Egypt, and there is still so much to do in Egypt, so much to learn, to research and collaborate on, and that is the positive thing to focus on.”

The public fascination with ancient Egypt owes its origins to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, the single most visited object in the British Museum, and “to a culture that left behind such a well-preserved, monumental testament to its existence that also has such a powerful visual appeal, which you don’t have in some other ancient cultures.

“I think the general visitor to a museum is drawn to this highly visual, artistic culture, including the writing system itself. If you compare it with cuneiform, for example, you’re going to be drawn more to hieroglyphics, because it’s so beautiful, so visually appealing. I think that’s what hooks people and encourages them to learn more about the culture.”

Certainly, the British Museum expects the exhibition, which will chart the journey to decipher hieroglyphs, from initial efforts by medieval Arab travelers and Renaissance scholars, through to Champollion’s triumph in 1822, to be one of its most popular to date. 

‘Hieroglyphs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt,’ is at the British Museum from Oct. 13, 2022 to Feb. 19, 2023.

 


Indian PM says Albanese re-election to strengthen ties

Updated 4 sec ago
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Indian PM says Albanese re-election to strengthen ties

  • India is expected to host a summit meeting of the Quad later this year
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese on Saturday on his general election victory, saying it would strengthen ties between the nations.
India has deepened defense cooperation with Australia in recent years as part of the Quad alliance with the United States and Japan, a grouping seen as a bulwark against China.
Modi said he looked forward to working together to “further deepen” ties with Australia and “advance our shared vision for peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.”
India is expected to host a summit meeting of the Quad later this year.
“Congratulations on your resounding victory and re-election... This emphatic mandate indicates the enduring faith of the Australian people in your leadership,” Modi said on X.
Albanese wooed Modi during a visit to Australia in 2023, referring to him as the “boss” during a massive rally of Indian-Australians.
Modi had earlier hosted Albanese in India, when they performed a lap of honor aboard a cricket-themed golf cart before a Test match, and bonded over their countries’ shared love of the sport.

Romanians vote in a presidential redo after voided election sparked deep political crisis

Updated 19 min 47 sec ago
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Romanians vote in a presidential redo after voided election sparked deep political crisis

  • The election redo is a crossroads moment for Romania as it seeks to restore its democracy and retain its geopolitical alliances
  • The decision to annul the election and the ban on Georgescu’s candidacy drew criticism from US Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk and Russia, which publicly supported his candidacy in the rerun

BUCHAREST, Romania: Romanians are casting ballots Sunday in a critical presidential election redo after last year’s annulled vote plunged the European Union and NATO member country into its worst political crisis in decades.
Eleven candidates are vying for the presidency and a May 18 runoff is expected. Polls opened at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) and will close at 9 p.m. (1800 GMT). Romanians abroad have been able to vote since Friday.
Romania’s political landscape was shaken last year when a top court voided the previous election in which the far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped first-round, following allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference, which Moscow has denied.
Like many countries in the EU, anti-establishment sentiment is running high in Romania, fueled by high inflation and cost of living, a large budget deficit and a sluggish economy. Observers say the malaise has bolstered support for nationalist and far-right figures like Georgescu, who is under investigation and barred from the rerun.
While data from local surveys should be taken with caution, a median of polls suggests that hard-right nationalist George Simion will enter the runoff, likely pitting him against Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, or the governing coalition’s candidate, Crin Antonescu.
Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician and former anti-corruption activist who founded the Save Romania Union party (USR) in 2016, is running on a pro-EU “Honest Romania” ticket. He says Romania needs a president “who has the will and the ability to reform the system.”
Veteran centrist Antonescu, 65, has campaigned on retaining Romania’s pro-Western orientation, while Victor Ponta, a former prime minister between 2012 and 2015, has also pushed a MAGA-style “Romania First” campaign and boasts of having close ties to the Trump administration.
Another hopeful, Elena Lasconi, came second in last year’s first round ballot and is participating in the rerun. She has positioned herself as a staunchly pro-Western, anti-system candidate, railing against what she describes as a corrupt political class.
Distrust in the authorities remains widespread, especially for those who voted for Georgescu, a sizeable electorate that Simion has sought to tap into.
“The anti-establishment sentiment is not like an anarchic movement, but is against the people who destroyed this country,” Simion, who came fourth in last year’s race and later backed Georgescu, told The Associated Press. “We are not a democratic state anymore.”
Simion said that his hard-right nationalist Alliance for the Unity of Romanians party is “perfectly aligned with the MAGA movement,” capitalizing on a growing wave of populism in Europe after US President Donald Trump’s political comeback. AUR rose to prominence in a 2020 parliamentary election, proclaims to stand for “family, nation, faith, and freedom,” and has since doubled its support.
The election redo is a crossroads moment for Romania as it seeks to restore its democracy and retain its geopolitical alliances, which have become strained since the canceled election fiasco.
The decision to annul the election and the ban on Georgescu’s candidacy drew criticism from US Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk and Russia, which publicly supported his candidacy in the rerun.
The presidential role carries a five-year term and significant decision-making powers in national security and foreign policy.


Japan protests China’s airspace ‘violation’ near disputed islands

Updated 43 min 53 sec ago
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Japan protests China’s airspace ‘violation’ near disputed islands

  • The Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement released late Saturday that its vice minister lodged “a strong protest” with the Chinese ambassador to Japan
  • On the same day, China’s coast guard announced it had used a helicopter to “expel” a Japanese airplane from airspace around the disputed islands

TOKYO: Tokyo has lodged a protest against Beijing after a Chinese helicopter “violated” Japan’s airspace and four vessles entered its territorial waters around disputed islands.
The islands in the East China Sea — known as the Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan — are claimed by Beijing but administered by Tokyo and are a frequent hotspot in bilateral tensions.
The Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement released late Saturday that its vice minister lodged “a strong protest” with the Chinese ambassador to Japan “over the intrusion of four China Coast Guard vessels into Japan’s territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands” on the same day.
The vice minister also protested “the violation of Japan’s territorial airspace by a helicopter launched from one of the China Coast Guard vessels, strongly urging (China) to ensure that similar acts do not recur.”
Japan’s defense ministry said the helicopter flew within Japanese airspace for about 15 minutes on Saturday near the Senkaku islands.
“The Self-Defense Forces responded by scrambling fighter jets,” the ministry said.
Public broadcaster NHK and other local media reported that this is the first time a Chinese government helicopter violated the Japanese airspace off the disputed islands.
On the same day, China’s coast guard announced it had used a helicopter to “expel” a Japanese airplane from airspace around the disputed islands.
Liu Dejun, spokesman for China’s coast guard, said a Japanese civilian aircraft “illegally entered” the airspace of the islands at 11:19 am (GMT 0219) and left five minutes later.
Beijing frequently announces it has driven Japanese vessels and aircraft away from the islands, but Japanese officials have told AFP that Chinese authorities sometimes announce expulsions when none have occurred.
Unnamed Japanese officials told local media that Beijing was possibly reacting to a small Japanese civilian aircraft flying near the islands.
Chinese and Japanese patrol vessels in the East China Sea have routinely staged dangerous face-offs around disputed islands.
Tensions between China and other claimants to parts of the East and South China Seas has driven Japan to deepen ties with the Philippines and United States.


5 arrested in UK for ‘terrorism offenses’: police

Updated 04 May 2025
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5 arrested in UK for ‘terrorism offenses’: police

  • The men aged between 29 and 46 were arrested on suspicion of “preparation of a terrorist act”

LONDON: British police on Sunday said they had arrested five men on suspicion of “terrorism offenses.”

The arrests were carried out in London, Swindon and the Greater Manchester area and were related to “a suspected plot to target specific premises,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

The men aged between 29 and 46 were arrested on suspicion of “preparation of a terrorist act” and remain in custody, the police said.

“This is a fast-moving investigation and we are working closely with those at the affected site to keep them updated,” said Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism chief Dominic Murphy.

“The investigation is still in its early stages and we are exploring various lines of enquiry to establish any potential motivation as well as to identify whether there may be any further risk to the public linked to this matter,” he said.


Singapore’s long-ruling party wins another landslide in election boost for new prime minister

Updated 04 May 2025
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Singapore’s long-ruling party wins another landslide in election boost for new prime minister

  • People’s Action Party won 87 out of a total 97 seats. The opposition Workers Party maintained its 10 seats
  • PM Wong has appealed for a resounding mandate to steer trade-reliant Singapore through economic troubles

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s long-ruling People’s Action Party won another landslide in Saturday’s general elections, extending its 66-year unbroken rule in a huge boost for Prime Minister Lawrence Wong who took power a year ago.
The Election Department announced the PAP won 82 Parliamentary seats after vote counting ended. The party had earlier won five seats uncontested, giving it 87 out of a total 97 seats. The opposition Workers Party maintained its 10 seats.
The PAP’s popular vote rose to 65.6 percent, up from a near-record low of 61 percent in 2020 polls. Jubilant supporters of the PAP, which had ruled Singapore since 1959, gathered in stadiums waved flags and cheered in celebration.
A US-trained economist who is also finance minister, Wong’s appeal for a resounding mandate to steer trade-reliant Singapore through economic troubles following US President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes has hit home. The government has lowered its growth forecast and warned of a possible recession.
Wong, 52, said he was humbled and grateful for the solid mandate for the PAP. He acknowledged voters’ desire to have more alternative voices in government, but said a strong PAP team was needed to tackle challenges ahead.
“The results will put Singapore in a better position to face this turbulent world,” he said.
Eugene Tan, a law professor at the Singapore Management University, said the opposition’s failure to make further inroads after 2020 was a surprise. “Singapore voters played their cards close to their chest. Today, they indicated that their trust is with a party that has delivered over the years,” he said.
Wong succeeded Lee Hsien Loong to become the city-state’s fourth leader. Lee stepped down in May 2024 after two decades at the helm but remained in the Cabinet as a senior minister. His retirement as premier ended a family dynasty started by his father, Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first leader, who built the former colonial backwater into one of the world’s richest nations during 31 years in office.

 

 

The PAP is seen as a beacon of stability and prosperity, but tight government control and the rising cost of living in one of the world’s most expensive cities also has led to growing unhappiness, especially among younger voters. Widening income disparity, increasingly unaffordable housing, overcrowding and restrictions on free speech have loosened the PAP’s grip on power.
The opposition says giving it a stronger presence in Parliament will allow a more balanced political system and greater accountability. But they face an uphill task, often hamstrung by a lack of resources, fragmented support and a lack of unity. Critics said gerrymandering also gives the PAP an advantage.
Pritam Singh, leader of the Workers Party, acknowledged it was a tough contest and vowed to continue the fight for a more balanced Parliament. “The slate is wiped clean, we start work again tomorrow, and we go again,” he said.
‘Bilateral defense and security ties’
The United States government offered its congratulations to Singapore and Wong.
In a statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US and Singapore had shared a “strong and enduring strategic partnership and a commitment to a secure, free, and prosperous Indo-Pacific region” for almost 60 years.
“We look forward to continuing to work closely with the newly elected government and Prime Minister Wong to strengthen economic growth and our bilateral defense and security ties, which benefit Americans, Singaporeans, and others across the region,” Rubio said.
While the Workers Party failed to expand its presence, it had consolidated its support with increased share vote in some areas, said Southeast Asia political analyst Bridget Welsh. Other smaller opposition parties however, failed to make a breakthrough.
Welsh said voters opted for stability amid concerns over global volatility due to sweeping US tariffs. Wong’s more approachable leadership in engaging younger voters and efforts to renew PAP by bringing in about a-third of new faces also helped swung votes, she said.
“I call this the Wong and Trump effect,” she said. “The issue of economic insecurity really did reinforce his mandate.”