The Rosetta Stone: How did people learn to read Egyptian hieroglyphs again?

Why this question matters

The Rosetta Stone is history's best-known language key: one decree written in Greek, which scholars could read, beside two Egyptian scripts they could not. It is also a lesson in how decipherment really works. It took years of comparison and more than one scholar, and an object made at the time has to be kept apart from what later experts concluded about it.

The evidence

The exhibits you examine in this case, labelled by the kind of evidence each one is.

• Made at the time196 BC

  The Rosetta Stone

  British Museum, EA 24

  A granodiorite slab carrying one priestly decree for King Ptolemy V, written three times: in hieroglyphs, in Demotic (everyday Egyptian script) and in ancient Greek. The Greek part ends by ordering the decree to be written in sacred, native and Greek letters.

• Made at the time196 BC

  Royal name rings

  Hieroglyphic section of the stone

  In the hieroglyphic text some signs sit inside oval rings called cartouches. Scholars guessed these rings held royal names, such as Ptolemy, which also appears in the Greek.

• Written later1822

  Champollion's Letter to M. Dacier

  Jean-François Champollion, Paris

  Champollion announced that hieroglyphs mix sound signs with word signs. He tested sound values by comparing the names Ptolemy and Cleopatra, the second taken from an obelisk found at Philae, not from the Rosetta Stone.

• Written laterStill used in church services

  The Coptic language

  Coptic Christian texts

  Coptic is the last stage of the Egyptian language, written in an alphabet based on Greek. Champollion knew Coptic well, which helped him recognise Egyptian words once he could sound out the signs.

How the investigation works

After the briefing and exhibits, you complete three steps. Every answer is explained, and the verdict lists the sources.

1. 1

   Chronology

   Put the events back in order, oldest first. BC and AD are handled correctly, and there is no year zero.

2. 2

   Source comparison

   Two sources, several statements. Decide which source supports each one, or whether neither does.

3. 3

   Supported conclusions

   Sort claims into supported, going beyond the evidence, or contradicted. Every answer explains why.

Sources

• British Museum: The Rosetta Stone (EA 24)
• British Museum blog: Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rosetta Stone

Case content last checked 2026-10-13. Not reviewed by an independent historian. Found an error? Tell us.