Calls for the return of Rosetta Stone to Egypt
200 years ago, the code of the Rosetta Stone was finally cracked and the hieroglyphics were deciphered by French Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion. The Rosetta Stone’s significance still echoes to this day.
200 years ago, the Rosetta Stone was stolen (1801) by the British forces and it had been on public display in the British Museum since then. As we have seen more and more nations that were victimized by the theft and looting of colonial practices, archaeologists had started asking for the return of the stolen historical items.
A loss for the French, a winning for the British
In March 1801, the British forces invaded Egypt and defeated the French forces in the “Battle of Abukir”, and ended the French colony that lasted from 1798 until 1801.
And as Julius Caesar once said: “War gives the right to the conquerors to impose any condition they please upon the vanquished.”, an agreement was signed between the British and French Forces, stating the surrender and departure of the latter in peace on the condition the British take “The Rosetta Stone” alongside other treasures as a spoil of war.
Click on the picture to explore the 3D model of the Rosetta Stone
The significance of the Rosetta Stone
It is believed that the store was originally displayed within a temple, but it was then moved during the Mamluk Period and was used as a building material in the construction of Fort Julien (or, in some sources, Fort Rashid “Rosetta”). The stone was then discovered in July 1799 by the french officer Pierre-François Bouchard during the Napoleonic colonising campaign in Egypt
The stone is 1.123 meters (3 ft 8 in) high at its highest point, 0.757 meters (2 ft 5.8 in) wide, and 0.284 meters (11 in) thick. and It weighs approximately 760 kilograms (1,680 lb).
The Rosetta Stone’s significance lies in the fact that it is inscribed with three versions of decree issued in Memphis, Egypt. The top and middle writing are Ancient Egyptian using Hieroglyphics and Demotic scripts, while the bottom text is Ancient Greek.
The three different versions of the decree make the Rosetta Stone a key tool for deciphering Ancient Egyptian scripts.
And after 23 years of Jean-Francois Champollion trying to decode the script on the stone, he realised that the solution lies in the Coptic language after it became clear to him that the word “Copt” is the Arabic equivalent of the Egyptus” – the greek name for Egypt.
Champollion set out to learn the Coptic language until he mastered it at the hands of an Egyptian priest residing in France at the time, “Youhanna Shivchi”. Champollion attended the mass with the priest in the Church of Saint-Roch, as he was still using the Coptic language in mass prayers.
It appears to be that the script on the Stone was actually a pledge of allegiance from the priests to the king back then, king Ptolemy V Epiphanes, on his ninth coronation anniversary.
Requests for the return of the Rosetta Stone to Egypt
Dr Monica Hanna, the dean at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport, had started a public campaign demanding Britain to return the “Rosetta Stone”.
And Dr Zahi Hawass has launched a petition for the return of three of his country’s most prized artefacts including the Rosetta Stone, a Zodiac ceiling in the Louvre in Paris, and a bust of Queen Nefertiti held by Berlin’s Neuse Museum.
It is time for the Egyptian government to step up and form a legal team to help retrieve what the British colony have once stolen. This step would be nothing but the start of the goal to recover the stolen antiquities Egypt has the right to keep.
But will that day come?
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