Egyptology, which originated in the eighteenth century, the first based on the bombast of eminent scientists and original, but no confirmation of the theory of young researchers.Egypt, characters who could not be deciphered Manila and frightened its mystery.Truly Egyptology began to develop only after the hands of scientists was key decoding Egyptian hieroglyphics.Rosetta Stone - it was so named long-awaited help - has the almost detective history.
all started with the work which the great philosopher and scholar Leibniz wrote to Louis XIV.Being not only a scientist but also a politician, Leibniz tried to divert the attention of the French monarch from his native Germany.His essay scientist devoted to Egypt, calling it "the key to the Europe".Written in the 1672nd, Leibniz's treatise was read by another French monarchy more than a hundred years later.The idea of a scientist like the Emperor Napoleon, and 1799th in Egypt, he sent a navy to defeat the British military units then occupied the country of pyramids.For the French fleet joined by scientists who are interested in the ancient civilization of Egypt.
Egypt remained under the authority of the French three years.During this time, scientists have collected a rich collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts, but the secrets of civilization were still closed for seven locks.The key to all these castles became the Rosetta Stone.He found a member of the expedition Bouchard during the construction of a military fort St. Julien.Fort was built near the town of Rosetta, from which a stone and called.Defeated in 1801-ohm, the French left Egypt, taking with them all the found rarity.Then the collection came to England, where she became the basis of the Egyptian department of the British Museum.
What is the Rosetta Stone?It was a monolith of black basalt with carved inscriptions on it.It subsequently emerged that the rock contains three versions of the text, written in three languages.I have read the decree of the priests of Memphis, in which the priesthood thanks Pharaoh Ptolemy V and gives him bragging rights.The first version of the decree was written in Egyptian hieroglyphics, and the third turned out to be a translation of this inscription is a decree on the Greek.Comparing these inscriptions, the researchers correlated with the Greek alphabet characters, thereby obtaining the key to the rest of the ancient Egyptian inscriptions.The third inscription was made demotic characters - ancient Greek cursive.
Rosetta Stone studied by many researchers.The first stone inscriptions deciphered the French Orientalist de Sasi, and continued his work Åkerblad Swedish scientist.The hardest thing was to read the hieroglyphic inscription part because the secret of the letter was lost as early as Roman times.He began deciphering hieroglyphs Young Englishman, but to achieve complete success was the Frenchman Champollion.He proved that the hieroglyphic system mainly consists of phonetic and alphabetic characters.During his short life, the scientist managed to create an extensive dictionary of ancient Egyptian language and the form of its grammatical rules.Thus, the role of the Rosetta Stone in the development of Egyptology was truly invaluable.
