|
|
|
Ancient Egypt Magazine Issue One - May / June 2000
The Rosetta Stone and Decipherment When John Packer viewed the exhibition to celebrate the newly-cleaned Rosetta Stone at the British Museum, he found the display well-laid out, logical and informative.
The clarity of presentation of the facts, and the simple and logical display, made it a delight for both scholar and beginner alike. In the first section, a wide variety of ancient scripts were shown including Sumerian, Chinese, Alaskan, Aboriginal Australian, Maya and Cuneiform, together with a facsimile of the last known example of a hieroglyphic text from Philae dated AD 394. Next, one moved to the story of the discovery of the stone (during the Napoleonic Expedition to Egypt of 1798) by Pierre Bouchard in 1799. The stone is in the centre of this section of the exhibition and, appropriately, the broken edges of the black stela glitter starrily. Close by is a facsimile of the complete stone. The text itself is a decree dating to the 27th March 196 BC honouring Ptolemy V Epiphanes. A clear and simple explanation of the deciphering of the stone followed, and although the contribution of J F Champollion (1790 – 1832) was given due acknowledgement, so too was the work of the Englishman Thomas Young (1773 – 1829), together with examples of his original letters on the subject. There is also a copy of Champollion’s Grammar of 1830. One moved on to examples of different Egyptian scripts including the lingua franca of diplomatic correspondence in ancient times, Akkadian. This language was used, 3,000 years ago, by the diplomatic staff of powerful rulers throughout the Middle East.
A section followed on the ‘Art of Writing’ with examples of demotic and hieratic, before continuing with the "The Power of Writing as the Words of the Gods" and the importance of the scribe and Thoth their god of script. The accompanying seven foot ‘Was’ sceptre, a symbol of authority, was itself most impressive. So was the fine example of ‘taking credit’ in the form of a text created in the name of Tutankhamun ‘taken over’ by Horemheb. One moved next to ‘the Art of Writing’, descriptive of the life of a scribe (with particular examples from Deir el Medina, and from there to a series of examples of Ancient Egyptian literature including a papyrus with part of a famous Middle Kingdom text, ‘The Story of Sinuhe’ and a stela with a poetic composition. Next followed examples of scripts developed from hieroglyphs including Meroitic from Kush (Nubia) and Proto-Sinaitic. The penultimate part was devoted to the cracking of other codes including Linear B and Maya with good examples of the text. The exhibition concluded, somewhat strangely, but no doubt with an eye to the Millennium, with reference to the Rosetta spacecraft to be launched early in the new era with the task of cracking the code of the building blocks of the universe. It is of course the hieroglyphs of Ancient Egypt that still exert a fascination today. Newcomers to the subject can make a good start with the British Museum’s own publication by Mark Collier & Bill Manley, "How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs", British Museum Press, 1998. For further information on the other subjects covered in the exhibition, there is "Cracking Codes: The Rosetta Stone and Decipherment" by R Parkinson, British Museum Press, 1999. AE |
|
Return to Home
with questions or comments about Ancient Egypt Magazine. or for sales, subscriptions, back numbers and advertising |
This
exhibition, now concluded, was held to celebrate the bi-centenary of the
discovery of the Rosetta Stone.
Early
examples of hieroglyphs began with a facsimile of the Narmer Palette and an
early ivory label of King Den, and moved to the ‘hidden meaning’
cryptograph. There followed inscribed examples of funerary statues, graffiti on
ostraca, and hieroglyphs in architecture in the form of a magnificent door
lintel.
e-
mail to: