The Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is a very important artifact of historical value. It helped decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Before the nineteenth century no one could figure out how to translate the hieroglyphs. It was discovered in 1799 and made in year 196 BCE.The hieroglyphs were deciphered by 1822 by the British scientist Thomas Young and the French scholar Jean-François Champollion. It was originally discovered by the French. By a man name Captain Pierre-François Bouchard, who was a French army engineer. The French army surrendered to Napoleon's army. Then there was a dispute about who it belonged to, and Napoleon's army ended up taking possession of the Rosetta Stone.

Today the Rosetta Stone remains in the British Museum, where people can visit and see the display of the stone. It has been there since 1802. During the end of World War I in 1917 the Rosetta stone and other value objects were moved to a safe place because of the bombing in London. The stone spent two years during this time in Postal Tube Railway 50 feet below the ground of Holborn.It was again moved from the British museum in October 1972 for a display at the Louvre Museum. It was the 150th anniversary of the decipherment of hieroglyphic.