DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6359#0042
34
EGYPT AND ITS MONUMENTS.
should be set up in each of the first, second, and third-rate
temples at the statue of the ever living king." The period of
time of which the stone records events, is about 196 b. c,
and the inscriptions on it furnish, probably, the most ex-
tended and important document of the Grseco-Egyptian
period.* The general impression of the learned is, that the
Greek was the original document, and the hieroglyphics and
enchorial writing are translations from it. Porson in England,
and Heyne in Germany, together with members of the Insti-
tute in France, were not long in establishing the proper reading
of the Greek text to the satisfaction of scholars; though a
full philological analysis of all the inscriptions, in the opinion
of Birch and other good Egyptian antiquarians, is yet a de-
sideratum. It is obvious however, from what has been stated,
that the discovery of this stone advanced the facilities and
means of research far beyond any and all the advantages pre-
viously possessed. And here, that we may make ourselves
more intelligible to the general reader, we subjoin a specimen
of the three different inscriptions found on the Rosetta stone ;
not with the view at present of showing the mode of interpre-
tation, but that a clear perception may be had of the nature
of those labors of the learned which we are about to detail.
* Some years ago it was suggested by Mr. Sharpe, and afterward by Mr.
Gliddon, that other copies of this stone might be found. Lepsius of Berlin has
a fragment from Philas, containing part of this decree.
EGYPT AND ITS MONUMENTS.
should be set up in each of the first, second, and third-rate
temples at the statue of the ever living king." The period of
time of which the stone records events, is about 196 b. c,
and the inscriptions on it furnish, probably, the most ex-
tended and important document of the Grseco-Egyptian
period.* The general impression of the learned is, that the
Greek was the original document, and the hieroglyphics and
enchorial writing are translations from it. Porson in England,
and Heyne in Germany, together with members of the Insti-
tute in France, were not long in establishing the proper reading
of the Greek text to the satisfaction of scholars; though a
full philological analysis of all the inscriptions, in the opinion
of Birch and other good Egyptian antiquarians, is yet a de-
sideratum. It is obvious however, from what has been stated,
that the discovery of this stone advanced the facilities and
means of research far beyond any and all the advantages pre-
viously possessed. And here, that we may make ourselves
more intelligible to the general reader, we subjoin a specimen
of the three different inscriptions found on the Rosetta stone ;
not with the view at present of showing the mode of interpre-
tation, but that a clear perception may be had of the nature
of those labors of the learned which we are about to detail.
* Some years ago it was suggested by Mr. Sharpe, and afterward by Mr.
Gliddon, that other copies of this stone might be found. Lepsius of Berlin has
a fragment from Philas, containing part of this decree.