Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics 

on the Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is a fragment of a large stone tablet. No further fragments have been found during the research of the Rosetta site so the three complete texts have not survived. List of texts on the Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone is a trio of granodiorite inscriptions from the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt in the name of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The upper and middle versions of the Rosetta Stone are written in hieroglyphics using hieroglyphics and demotic script while the lower version is written in ancient Greek script. There are only minor differences between the three versions making the Rosetta Stone a key to deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Ancient Egyptian is an Afro-Asiatic language and one of the oldest known written languages first recorded in hieroglyphics in the late 4th millennium BC.

Rosetta Stone / Granodiorite Inscription / Demotic and Greek Hieroglyphics

It is also the oldest known human language with written records spanning more than 4,000 years. Classical forms of Egyptian were used as the native language of Middle Kingdom Egypt and were the literary language of Egypt until Roman times. The upper inscription which consists of hieroglyphics is the most damaged. Only the last 14 lines of the hieroglyphic text are visible. The front surface of the Rosetta Stone is polished and the inscription is carved. There is a fracture on the right side and a row of lines on the left. The lower inscription is the middle inscription of the demotic text which is still well preserved. The sides of the stone have been smoothed while the back which was not visible when the platform was built is roughly carved. The sides of the stone have been smoothed

Canopus Stone inscription with Demotic and Koine Greek hieroglyphics

Ancient Greek Canopus also known as Canobus was a coastal city in ancient Egypt located in the Nile Delta on the eastern outskirts of Alexandria from the city center called the Canopic branch. The Canobus is a trilingual inscription in three scripts dating back to the Ptolemaic period of ancient Egypt The inscription was written in three writing systems: hieroglyphics demotic and Koine Greek on stone tablets or monuments in ancient Egyptian antiquity The inscription is the record of a great priestly meeting held at Canopus Egypt.

The Rosetta Stone is described as a black granite stone with three inscriptions found at Rosetta  At some point the inscriptions were painted with white chalk These additions were removed when the stone was cleaned in 1999 exposing the stone's original dark grey color to make it easier to read and the remaining surface was covered with a layer of carnauba wax to protect it from fingers. The three inscriptions are not in different languages. In addition to the inscriptions, there may be scenes of kings being presented to the gods with a winged disc on top as on these parallel Canopus inscriptions

And the hieroglyphic symbols for the inscriptions on the black Rosetta Stone are fragments from a similar stone tablet to the Canopus Stone which was built in 238 BC during the reign of Ptolemy III. It is 7.19 feet high and 32 inches wide and contains 36 lines of hieroglyphic text 73 lines of demotic text and Greek text of approximately the same length By comparison it is estimated that there are 14 or 15 additional lines of hieroglyphic text missing from the top of the Rosetta Stone which is another 12 inches long. These parallel images and the hieroglyphic symbols for the inscriptions on the stone tablets are still intact. The hieroglyphic texts on these tablets are still intact The Rosetta Stones were deciphered long before their discovery and they were used to improve the reconstruction of hieroglyphics which were likely used in the lost portions of the hieroglyphic text on the Rosetta Stone.