How Did the Rosetta Stone Unlock Egyptian Hieroglyphs?

💡 The Answer

• The stone features the same decree inscribed in three scripts: hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Ancient Greek.
• Scholars could read Ancient Greek, so they used it as a key to translate the unknown Egyptian scripts.
• Thomas Young first identified that cartouches contained royal names, providing a crucial breakthrough.
• Jean-François Champollion later built on this work, fully deciphering the hieroglyphic system by 1822.