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Rosetta Stone
Image gallery - click the zoom icon to see details or click on the image to enlarge
See also: Learn more about the Rosetta Stone
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Image gallery - click the zoom icon to see details or click on the image to enlarge
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 to see image details The full-size illustrations of the three sections of the Rosetta Stone were prepared from casts of the stone that were made in Egypt, before the stone was handed over to the British. A better cast of the top portion, with the hieroglyphs, was needed. Edme Jomard, editor in chief of the Description was allowed to make a plaster cast in the British Museum in 1815, which was then used for the plate illustrating that part of the Stone. The text – hieroglyphs at top, ancient Egyptian demotic in the center, and Greek at the bottom – is the same in all three scripts. By studying them, Jean-François Champollion deciphered the hieroglyphs in 1822. |
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| Detail of the Rosetta Stone, with the cartouche of the word “Ptolemy,” from the Description de l'Égypte Antiquités. The elongated ovals, or cartouches, in the hieroglyphic section always contain a royal name. |
See also: Learn more about the Rosetta Stone
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This exhibition is made possible with the generous support of the J.E. Dunn Construction Company.
Image Gallery Selections
- The Institute of Egypt
- Artists and Engineers at Work
- Minerals of Egypt
- Mapping Egypt
- Berthollet's Physical Chemistry and the Natron Lakes
- Conte's Engraving Machine
- Murad Bey, Mameluke Leader
- The Pyramids at Giza
- The Rosetta Stone
- The Ancient Suez Canal
- Egyptian Mammals and Egyptian Fish
- The Zodiac of Dendera
- Site and Monument Locator
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The Image Gallery has been adapted from graphic wall panels that were used in the on-site exhibition at the Linda Hall Library.