{"id":4166,"date":"2017-04-10T08:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T08:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/?p=4166"},"modified":"2017-08-17T16:58:02","modified_gmt":"2017-08-17T16:58:02","slug":"recollecting-the-rosetta-stones-of-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/recollecting-the-rosetta-stones-of-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Recollecting the Rosetta Stones of the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

GIF via Giphy<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Reading this title, there are two logical leaps to make. One, either we are going to talk about an ancient stone tablet, or two, we will discuss language apps and aids of the past.<\/p>\n

In fact, the first assumption is a little closer to home, so bonus points for you if that\u2019s where your mind went! What we want to take a general look at are artefacts of our favourite Indiana Joneses et. al. have discovered that were keys to deciphering various languages.<\/p>\n

So, without further ado, here\u2019s a little look!<\/p>\n

The Rosetta Stone<\/b><\/p>\n

Okay, yes, we are starting with the Rosetta Stone, because we would never discount such a crucial find. The Rosetta Stone was discovered by French soldiers rebuilding a fort in Egypt in 1799, in a town called, surprisingly, Rosetta. It is a granodiorite stele, which is just a fancy way of saying an igneous rock slab, carved in 196 BCE to commemorate the royal cult of Ptolemy V on the first anniversary of his coronation.<\/p>\n

Now, as messages from the past go, that might not be on the top of everyone\u2019s wish list of things to read, but here is why it\u2019s so important:<\/p>\n

The inscriptions were in both Egyptian and Greek, using hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek scripts, which means that by comparing the scripts, using the Greek that people already knew at the time of the Stone\u2019s \u2018translation\u2019, it was possible to decipher the previously unknown Egyptian. It meant that through the work of hundreds of people, with the eventual credit for the translation going to Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Champollion in 1822, we could for the first time understand the hieroglyphs of a long dead tongue. Isn\u2019t that kind of magical?<\/p>\n

The Raphia Decree<\/b><\/p>\n

Why is it always in Egypt?! Not that we are complaining; the Raphia Decree is another stone inscribed in both Egyptian and Greek in hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek scripts. The slab is thought to have been carved around 217 BCE to celebrate the victory of Ptolemy IV at the Battle of Raphia.<\/p>\n

The Raphia Decree was discovered in 1902 in the ancient Memphis, and was in fact one of a series of decrees, known as the Ptolemaic Decrees, issued under the Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty. E. R. Bevan is credited with translating the work, although David Klotz of Yale University has reexamined parts of the hieroglyphic text and offered some amendments. No translation is done without tweaking by others, after all.<\/p>\n

Learning a new language? Check out our\u00a0<\/b>free placement test<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>to see how your level measures up!<\/b><\/p>\n

Decree of Canopus<\/b><\/p>\n