Expert: Ralph Salier - 5/31/2005

Question
Hello there, my name is Christina and I live in Australia. I have a question if that's okay. My Mum told me that when she was a little girl her Mum told her a true story of something that archaeologists found in Egypt. It was something that was written in hieroglifics and nobody in the world could translate it at the time. And at the bottom of that writing it said in other hieroglifics that they COULD understand that "when you are able to decipher and understand the writing above, then you will be at the same stage as we were when we wrote this". I was wondering if you have ever heard of this as my Mum and I were wondering if they ever did translate the rest of the writing on it, and if so, what did it say? I really appreciate your time and thanks a lot for your help, from Christina

Answer
Hi Christina.

Your mother may be speaking of the Rosetta Stone.  This was a treaty written between Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece.  The bottom of the inscribed stone tablet is written in Greek the middle is written in what is called hiratic (Ancient Egyptian script) and the top is written in Egyptian hyroglyphics.  Untill this document, very little of the hyroglyphics were deciphered.  

As I indicated above, it is a treaty which allows trade, the exchange of information and the acceptance of each other's monetary systems.  So that the trade would be on a value to value basis.  It also opened trade routes and ambassadorial relationships.