DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9059#0062
LANGUAGE AND WRITING. 57
French artillery officer, while digging entrench-
ments round the town of that name. It contains
a copy of a decree made by the priests of Egypt,
assembled at Memphis, in honor of Ptolemy
Epiphanes. This decree is engraved on the
stone in three languages, or rather in three
different writings. The first is the hieroglyphic,
the grand old writing of the monuments; the
second is the demotic character as used by the
people; and the third is the Greek. But the
text in Greek character is the translation of the
two former. Up to this time, hierogtyphs had
remained an impenetrable mystery even for
science. But a corner of the veil was about to
be lifted: in proceeding from the known to the
unknown, the sense at all events was at length
to be arrived at of that mysterious writing
which had so long defied all the efforts of
science. Many erudite scholars tried to solve
the mystery, and Young, among others, very
nearly brought his researches to a satisfactory
issue. But it was Champollion's happy lot to
succeed in entirely tearing away the veil.
Such is the Rosetta Stone, which thus became
the instrument of one of the greatest discoveries
which do honor to the nineteenth century.
French artillery officer, while digging entrench-
ments round the town of that name. It contains
a copy of a decree made by the priests of Egypt,
assembled at Memphis, in honor of Ptolemy
Epiphanes. This decree is engraved on the
stone in three languages, or rather in three
different writings. The first is the hieroglyphic,
the grand old writing of the monuments; the
second is the demotic character as used by the
people; and the third is the Greek. But the
text in Greek character is the translation of the
two former. Up to this time, hierogtyphs had
remained an impenetrable mystery even for
science. But a corner of the veil was about to
be lifted: in proceeding from the known to the
unknown, the sense at all events was at length
to be arrived at of that mysterious writing
which had so long defied all the efforts of
science. Many erudite scholars tried to solve
the mystery, and Young, among others, very
nearly brought his researches to a satisfactory
issue. But it was Champollion's happy lot to
succeed in entirely tearing away the veil.
Such is the Rosetta Stone, which thus became
the instrument of one of the greatest discoveries
which do honor to the nineteenth century.