The Rosetta Stone
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 7 June 2026
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In July 1799, French soldiers unearthed a stone that would transform our understanding of the ancient world. Discovered in a fort at Rashid, the Rosetta Stone became the key to deciphering Egypt’s long-lost hieroglyphs. Within two decades, scholars began unlocking its secrets. But what does it actually say? Tristan speaks with Dr Ilona Regulski to explore the stone, the script, and the race to decode it.
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Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan. The producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ever wondered why the Romans were defeated in the Tudorburg forest? |
| 0:04.0 | What secrets lie buried in prehistoric Ireland? |
| 0:07.0 | Or what made Alexander truly great? |
| 0:10.0 | With a subscription to history hit, you can explore our ancient past alongside the world's leading historians and archaeologists. |
| 0:17.0 | You'll also unlock hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a brand new release every single week covering everything from the ancient world to World War II. |
| 0:26.5 | Just visit historyhit.com slash subscribe. Hello and welcome to the ancients. |
| 0:45.7 | We have an episode from our archive today, one that was released originally almost four years ago. |
| 0:52.0 | We're talking about one of the most famous objects, artefacts ever discovered, |
| 0:56.9 | one that was crucial in the race to decipher the ancient Egyptian script that is hieroglyph. |
| 1:04.6 | This is the story of the Rosetta Stone. Now, four years ago, March 200 years since the deciphering of pyrocliffs, and so the British |
| 1:12.5 | Museum had an exhibition all about this seismic event, the unlocking of ancient Egypt |
| 1:18.6 | to the world. |
| 1:20.1 | So I headed over to the British Museum to interview their curator of the exhibition, Dr. |
| 1:24.4 | Ilona Rigolsky, all about the Rosetta Stone and its story. What this |
| 1:30.1 | object is, how it was discovered, what is actually said on it, and why it plays such an important |
| 1:35.8 | role in the race to decipher hieroglyphs 200 years ago. Hope you enjoy the episode. Let's go. |
| 1:47.7 | Elona. years ago. Hope you enjoy the episode. Let's go. Ilona, it's wonderful to have you on the podcast today. Thank you. And it's really |
| 1:53.2 | lovely to be here at the British Museum to chat to you on the eve of this incredible |
| 1:58.4 | new exhibition coming out on hieroglyphs. And it seems to be at the heart of this new exhibition, the Rosetta Stone, |
| 2:04.6 | this feels like one of the most famous objects in the entire world. |
| 2:08.6 | Yeah, it's definitely one of the most popular objects in the British Museum. |
| 2:13.6 | And yeah, we're very excited to be able to redisplay it in the exhibition and to tell stories |
... |
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