The Key to Hieroglyphs: Rosetta Stone
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 13 October 2022
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In July 1799 a group of French soldiers stumbled upon a stone that was set to change our understanding of the ancient world.
The iconic Rosetta Stone, a stela or inscribed slab, was dug up in the foundations of a fort in the town of Rasheed - a port city east of Alexandria. The Stone was central in kickstarting antiquarians such as Jean-Francois Champollion and Thomas Young down the path of unlocking ancient Egypt’s enigmatic language within just c.20 years of the Stone's rediscovery. Today, it ranks amongst the most famous artefacts in the world. So what exactly is it? And what does it say?
To explain the Rosetta Stone and so much more, Tristan interviews Dr Ilona Regulski, curator of the British Museum’s new exhibition 'Hieroglyphs Unlocking Ancient Egypt'. Looking at the hieroglyph script and how it was deciphered, alongside key figures in the race to decipherment, such as Jean-Francois Champollion, Thomas Young, William Bankes, it's an event not to be missed.
If you want to find out more about the exhibition click here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/hieroglyphs-unlocking-ancient-egypt?gclid=Cj0[…]L_5Yn8vOaYEdKDmCGW6_SQo9UMZqsHuriJctr1WMm5z8kaAl-dEALw_wcB
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the Engines on History Hit. |
| 0:12.2 | I'm Tristan Hughes, your host, and in today's podcast, well it's very, very exciting indeed |
| 0:17.1 | because this is ancient history news hot off the press. |
| 0:20.8 | Because a few days ago, I headed over to the British Museum to interview curator Dr. |
| 0:27.2 | Ilona Regulski. |
| 0:29.4 | Because Ilona and her team have created the newest extraordinary exciting exhibition |
| 0:35.7 | at the British Museum right now all about the deciphering of hieroglyphs. |
| 0:41.7 | 2022 marks 200 years since Jean-François Champonion famously shouted, |
| 0:47.4 | J'étais en la faire, I've got it. |
| 0:50.4 | 200 years since Champonion deciphered hieroglyphs since he cracked the hieroglyph code. |
| 0:57.6 | Now in today's podcast episode, I chat with Ilona about the most famous artifact associated |
| 1:03.8 | with this significant linguistic breakthrough. |
| 1:07.7 | I am of course talking about the Resetta Stone, one of the most famous objects in the |
| 1:11.8 | entire world and an object which is the Keystone, the centre piece of this great new exhibition. |
| 1:19.7 | In this podcast, we're going to be talking about what the Resetta Stone is. |
| 1:22.3 | It's significance in the race to decipher hieroglyphs, but we're also going to be going a bit |
| 1:26.9 | further away from the Resetta Stone. |
| 1:28.8 | Looking at other artifacts that were also important in this great race to decipher hieroglyphs, |
| 1:34.6 | also the actions, the importance of other figures as well as Champonion, Thomas Young, |
| 1:39.8 | William Banks and so on and so forth. |
| 1:42.1 | This was a wonderful chat with Ilona. |
| 1:43.9 | We also recently chatted with Ilona next to the Resetta Stone as part of a history hit |
... |
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