saw the Rosetta Stone CD thread and it made me thing of the real thing. Basically, I understand it to be a tripartite stone in greek, demotic greek (?), and hieroglyph or something. people knew the 1st two, but not the 3rd.
how is the actual decryption process of the hieroglyph actually done? how do they know with a reason certainty that the translations they’ve developed (and eventually I guess there’s thousands of inscriptions translated over time that there’s no doubt???). I understand a similar process was done with Akkadian or something. I mean, at least with Shang inscriptions, there’s a little carryover with the script.
“British troops, who drove the French from Egypt in 1801, meanwhile took possession of the Stone and transported it to London, where it has been on public display at the British Museum since 1802.”
Uh, I think what is on public display is a replica.
Weren’t they amazed that the hieroglyphics were phonetic in nature.
Slight correction: Demotic is not Greek, but Egyptian. It is written in an alphabetic script similar to Arabic, mixed with hieroglyphics. The language is related to Coptic, a later form of the Egyptian language written in Greek script.
