In early October 2009, the Foundation’s Acquisitions Chairman (AC) completed the negotiation for the two-year loan of a Rosetta Stone replica from Dr. Joel Freeman, president of the Freeman Institute.
The AC displayed the replica at the Foundation’s 2009 General Membership Meeting (GMM) on 14 October before transferring the stone to the NCM where it was placed on display. The replica is a near perfect match for the original Rosetta Stone on display at the British Museum. Pictures of the original and replica are included here.
The Rosetta Stone dates to the year 196 BC and has the same text carved in three different languages: two Egyptian (hieroglyphic and Demotic) and one classical Greek. The Stone was discovered by the French in 1799 at Rashid, Egypt (the translation for Rashid is Rosetta), on the west bank of the Nile. The British eventually took possession of the Stone and it has been on display at the British Museum since 1802. The “secrets” of the stone were “decrypted” in 1822 by the French scholar Jean-Francois Champollion. Deciphering the meaning of the hieroglyphic and demotic symbols and language is arguably the earliest known solution of a cryptologic isolog (i.e., the same text encoded in two or more forms).
To learn more about the Rosetta Stone and the replica project please visit www.RosettaStoneReplicas.com
Originally posted in October 2009.
