Volume V Plates 52, 53, 54 - The Rosetta Stone ~ A large stone of gray-pink granite with a streak of darker stone in a vein near the top was discovered by the French Army in the Delta region of Egypt, near the branch of the Nile called the Rosetta. It had three styles of writing inscribed on its surface, and was recognized as something important, so the stone was sent to Alexandria then on to Cairo where rubbing copies were made and sent to scholars all over Europe. When the French Army surrendered to the British in 1801, the Rosetta Stone was surrendered and eventually made it's way to the British Museum in London where it resides today. Thomas Young, an English physicist, was the first to show that some of the hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone wrote the sounds of the royal name Ptolemy. Following an in-depth examination of the Rosetta Stone, the French scholar Jean-Franois Champollion came to the conclusion that he had at hand one single text in two languages, Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic Egyptian, and Greek. This key unlocked the meanings to the mysterious hieroglyphic writings that many believed were symbolic and imbued with secret meaning, rather than simply being a popular script. This major discovery became the foundation for modern Egyptology.

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