In Search of History

Secrets of the Rosetta Stone (1998x1)

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For hundreds of years, the glorious history of Ancient Egypt remained a mystery to the world, its secrets locked away in the baffling language of the hieroglyphs. But in 1799, French troops near the Egyptian town of Rosetta discovered an ancient basalt slab that would prove to be the key to unlocking Egypt's mysteries. Carved in 196 BC, the Rosetta stone bore a decree praising the Egyptian king Ptolemy V etched in hieroglyphs, demotic Egyptian and Greek. From the discovery and the long struggle to uncover the secrets of the ancient language to the birth of modern Egyptology, this is the fascinating saga of the Rosetta Stone. Trace the many failed attempts and dead-ends that stumped scholars. Leading experts tell the story of the brilliant, obsessed Jean Francois Champollion, who finally broke the code. And see how, within a few years, the secrets revealed because of the Rosetta Stone had transformed our understanding of the ancient world.