Is it time for Britain to return the Rosetta Stone?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2022
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
More than 200 years ago French soldiers uncovered a slab of granite in the Nile Delta which became the key to understanding the history of ancient Egypt.
The Rosetta Stone is inscribed with ancient Egyptian and Greek text, and hieroglyphs. Before it was translated, no-one realised that hieroglyphs were a form of written language.
After the French surrender of Egypt in 1801, the artifact was taken to the UK, and ever since, it’s been one of the main attractions at the British Museum in London.
The museum is holding a major exhibition on hieroglyphs, with the stone as its centrepiece, but there are calls from Egyptian scholars for it to be taken back to its place of origin.
However, the British Museum says there has been no formal request from the Egyptian government to return the Rosetta Stone.
So this week on the Inquiry, we’re asking: Is it time for Britain to return the Rosetta Stone?
Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Ravi Naik Researcher: Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Broadcast Coordinator: Jacqui Johnson
(Image: The Rosetta Stone on display in the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery at the British Museum: BBC Images/European Photopress Agency/Neil Hall)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Gene Lee, and I'm Jeff White, and we're back with a brand new episode of our podcast, |
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| 0:18.0 | So what better moment to listen to the whole of season one? |
| 0:20.8 | Or if you've heard it already, listen again. |
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| 0:34.4 | Welcome to the inquiry on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:38.1 | I'm Tanya Beckett, one question for expert witnesses and an answer. |
| 0:48.7 | For centuries, the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt were shrouded in mystery. |
| 0:54.3 | Pictoral writings meticulously carved into tombs and monuments. |
| 0:59.3 | They held the secrets of one of the world's most fascinating empires, |
| 1:03.9 | and yet were tantalizingly beyond comprehension. |
| 1:08.2 | Over the centuries, scholars had tried and failed to decode them. |
| 1:12.8 | Despite their efforts, it seemed that the story of the land of the pharaohs had forever been lost. |
| 1:19.3 | Then two centuries ago, on September the 27th, 1822, |
| 1:24.6 | a talented French linguist by the name of Jean-François Champolion |
| 1:30.0 | announced that at last, he and his colleagues had managed to fathom their meaning. |
| 1:36.9 | The key to their understanding was writing on a block of granite found in Egypt by Napoleon's troops. |
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