What is Rosetta Stone?
[[File:Rosetta Stone, 196 BC.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The Rosetta Stone, [[British Museum]], London]] [[File:DemoticScriptsRosettaStoneReplica.jpg|thumb|The writing on the Rosetta Stone (close up) from a replica in [[Magdeburg]]]] The '''Rosetta Stone''' is a stone with writing carved into it. There are 3 types of writing on the Rosetta stone; Greek, Egyptian, and another form of Egyptian writing. French soldiers found it in [[Egypt]] in 1799. It helped people get a better understanding of the [[Ancient Egypt]]ian [[writing system]] called [[hieroglyphics]]. Its discovery led to the translation of Ancient Egyptian writing. The stone is named after the city where it was found, [[Rosetta]] (also called Rashid). The stone is now in the [[British Museum]] in [[London]]. It had three pieces of writing on it that said the same thing in two different [[language]]s. Two pieces of writing were written in [[Egyptian language|Ancient Egyptian]], but in two different scripts: [[Demotic]] and [[Hieroglyph|hieroglyphics]]. The third writing was written in [[Ancient Greek]]. The historians could already read the Greek. Using this knowledge they were able to work out how to read the Egyptian scripts. The complete Greek text, in English,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/texts/rosettastone.htm|title=Translation of the Greek section of the Rosetta Stone|website=www.reshafim.org.il|access-date=2008-12-10|archive-date=2012-07-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120713070701/http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/texts/rosettastone.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> is about 1600–1700 words in length. The text is a royal decree from the [[Hellenistic period]] about the taxes of temple priests. It gives them back the tax [[wikt:privilege|privileges]] they had earlier. Some scholars believe that several copies of the Rosetta Stone might exist, as this proclamation must have been made at many temples. == The discovery of the stone == The soldiers who discovered the stone were part of [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]'s 1798