Record · Classical world · Africa · 196 BC · Culture & ideas · Inventions & science

What the Rosetta Stone says, and how it helped Champollion

Edited by Song Letter · Researched and written with AI assistance, checked against the sources below · How we make it

Published 2026-08-05 · Reviewed 2026-10-11 · 4 min read

the Rosetta Stone, a dark granodiorite slab carved with three scripts — The Rosetta Stone, carved in 196 BC with the same decree in hieroglyphs, Demotic and Greek, in a high-contrast photograph. British Museum, London. Unknown author / Public domain. Source

TL;DR — The Rosetta Stone carries a priests’ decree of 196 BC for Ptolemy V in three scripts; in 1822 Champollion used its royal names, with a Philae obelisk’s, to read hieroglyphs.

The Rosetta Stone is a copy of a decree passed by Egypt’s priests in 196 BC to honor the young king Ptolemy V, carved in hieroglyphs, Demotic and Greek. It helped Jean-François Champollion read hieroglyphs because the Greek, which scholars could read, gave the meaning, and the royal names in the other scripts gave their sounds. The page that publishes Carol Andrews’s translation of the Greek, made for the British Museum in 1985, sums it up: “A royal decree promulgated by Ptolemy V in 196 B.C., written in hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek. Found by the French at Rosetta (el Rashid) in the Delta in 1799.”

Quick facts

When: The decree in the ninth year of Ptolemy V, 196 BC; the stone found in 1799; Champollion's letter dated September 22, 1822
Where: Memphis, where the priests met; Rosetta (Rashid) in the Nile Delta, where the stone was found
Who: Ptolemy V Epiphanes; the priests of Egypt's temples; Jean-François Champollion
Outcome: Comparing the Greek with the Egyptian scripts, Champollion identified sound-signs used to write the names of foreign rulers

A council of priests at Memphis

The decree records a gathering. “There being assembled the Chief Priests and Prophets and those who enter the inner shrine for the robing of the Gods, and the Fan-bearers and the Sacred Scribes and all the other priests from the temples throughout the land who have come to meet the king at Memphis,” the Greek text reads, they came for the feast of his assumption of the kingship and “being assembled in the temple in Memphis this day declared” their decree. It is dated to “the ninth year” of the king’s reign.

The occasion was a coronation. The historian Jona Lendering dates the “traditional, native coronation of Ptolemy in Memphis” to March 26, 196 BC, when he took the surname Epiphanes, “the god manifests himself,” and “Egyptian priests decree a divine cult for the young king (the text is known from the Rosetta Stone).” Ptolemy’s family was Macedonian, but, Lendering notes, the Ptolemies were willing “to present themselves to the Egyptians as native pharaohs.”

Three scripts by order of the decree

The three scripts were not an accident. The decree ends with an instruction: “This decree shall be inscribed on a stela of hard stone in sacred and native and Greek characters and set up in each of the first, second, and third [rank] temples beside the image of the ever living king.” Sacred meant hieroglyphic and native meant Demotic, the everyday Egyptian script.

The Rosetta Stone is therefore one of many copies the priests ordered for temples across Egypt. This copy came to light at Rosetta, Rashid, in the Nile Delta, where the French found it in 1799.

Champollion's letter of September 1822

The breakthrough came in a letter. Champollion addressed it to M. Dacier, permanent secretary of the Académie royale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, signed it in Paris “le 22 septembre 1822,” and noted that an extract was read to the academy on September 27. Its title shows its scope: an alphabet of the “phonetic hieroglyphs used by the Egyptians to inscribe on their monuments the titles, names and surnames of the Greek and Roman sovereigns.”

The Rosetta Stone gave him a start. Reading its Demotic “by means of the Greek text that accompanies it,” Champollion wrote, had shown him that the Egyptians used certain signs “to express sounds” in order to write foreign names. But the hieroglyphic part was broken. Because of its fractures, he wrote, it presented “only the name of Ptolemy.” A second monument filled the gap: an obelisk found on the island of Philae and “recently transported to London” carried the name of a Ptolemy “in the same signs as in the Rosetta inscription,” and with it the name Cleopatra. Quotations from the letter are our own translations from the French.

Painted portrait of Jean-François Champollion, the scholar who deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs — Jean-François Champollion, painted by Léon Cogniet in 1831. Léon Cogniet / Public domain. Source

Key facts

The decree was issued by priests assembled at Memphis in the ninth year of Ptolemy V, 196 BC (Rosetta Stone, Greek text).
Lendering dates Ptolemy V’s native coronation at Memphis to March 26, 196 BC (Livius.org).
The decree ordered copies “in sacred and native and Greek characters” for temples of the first, second and third rank (Rosetta Stone, Greek text).
The stone was found by the French at Rosetta in 1799 (Andrews translation, Attalus.org).
Champollion dated his letter September 22, 1822; an extract was read at the academy on September 27 (Champollion 1822).
The hieroglyphic text of the Rosetta Stone, broken, preserved only the name of Ptolemy; the Philae obelisk added Cleopatra (Champollion 1822).

FAQ

What does the Rosetta Stone say?

It is a decree of Egypt's priests, meeting at Memphis in 196 BC, honoring the young king Ptolemy V at his coronation and establishing a cult for him.

Why is the Rosetta Stone written in three scripts?

The decree itself orders it to be inscribed "in sacred and native and Greek characters," that is, hieroglyphic, Demotic and Greek, and set up in temples throughout Egypt.

When was the Rosetta Stone found?

In 1799, by the French, at Rosetta (Rashid) in the Nile Delta.

When did Champollion decipher hieroglyphs?

His Lettre à M. Dacier is dated September 22, 1822, and an extract was read to the Académie des Inscriptions on September 27, 1822. It set out the sound-signs used to write the names of Greek and Roman rulers.

Was the Rosetta Stone enough to decipher hieroglyphs?

Not alone. Champollion wrote that its broken hieroglyphic text preserved only the name of Ptolemy; an obelisk from Philae supplied the same name and Cleopatra's.

Sources

The whole world at about the same time: The world in 200 BC

Cite this article

APA: Song Letter. (2026, October 11). What the Rosetta Stone says, and how it helped Champollion. Our Earth's History. https://ourearthshistory.com/africa/classical/rosetta-stone-decree-revived-hieroglyphs/
Chicago: Song Letter. “What the Rosetta Stone says, and how it helped Champollion.” Our Earth's History, October 11, 2026. https://ourearthshistory.com/africa/classical/rosetta-stone-decree-revived-hieroglyphs/.
MLA: Song Letter. “What the Rosetta Stone says, and how it helped Champollion.” Our Earth's History, 11 Oct. 2026, https://ourearthshistory.com/africa/classical/rosetta-stone-decree-revived-hieroglyphs/.

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