As much artifact as document, the Rosetta Stone, a slab of black basalt, bears inscribed text in ancient Greek and in two forms of old Egyptian writing: formal hieroglyphics (as seen on royal tomb walls) and the more common demotic script. In 1799, during Napoleon's occupation of Egypt, some of his soldiers found the rock on the Rosetta fork of the Nile River at Raschid, near Alexandria. The rock was carved about 2,000 years earlier, in 196 BC.

When the stone was recovered, nobody knew how to read hieroglyphics, and ancient Egyptian history seemed lost forever.

Scholars Thomas Young and Jean Francois Champollion worked hard and long to decipher the stone, establishing that the three texts all said the same thing. Using his knowledge of ancient Greek, Champollion was able to announce in 1822 that he could read hieroglyphics. The Rosetta Stone provided an entryway into the remote Egyptian past. You can see the Rosetta Stone in London's British Museum.