Cold Open

It’s around 392 CE, in northern Egypt.

A laborer lifts a hammer high above his head and brings it down against a stone wall. The wooden handle hums as the hammer crunches into the stone, but the laborer ignores the discomfort and raises his arms for another swing. He’s getting paid to bring down an old temple, and the thought of a few coins in his pocket spurs him on to hit the sturdy wall over and over.

Four centuries ago, the last pharaoh was deposed, and Egypt was assimilated into the Roman Empire. Recently, Christianity has taken root in Rome, and the emperor has issued a decree closing all non-Christian temples and shrines. That includes this one that the worker is demolishing, which has been used to worship the old gods for hundreds of years.

After the laborer’s next swing, a crack opens in the middle of the wall. He concentrates his efforts on that area… and before long, the wall collapses.

The laborer waves away the dust that rises from the rubble, and as the air clears, a dark stone catches his eye. It’s over three-and-a-half feet long and over two feet across. There’s something carved into it—an inscription including letters and small pictures. But the laborer has no idea what it says. It’s in a long-forgotten script that no one uses anymore.

After examining the old engraving for a moment, the laborer pulls the heavy, dark stone to one side. The carvings mean nothing to him, but the broad, flat stone is in good shape for building with. He’ll trade it for a few coins to one of the stonemasons in the nearby town of Rosetta.

Over the coming centuries, this dark stone will be reused again and again in Egyptian buildings, but no one will pay much attention to the strange inscription on it for over a thousand years. It’s only when a mania for all things Egyptian sweeps Europe in the late 18th century that the Rosetta Stone will finally capture the world’s attention. It’ll spur academics into a two-decade race to translate its text—a quest that will only end when the inscriptions on the mysterious stone are finally deciphered on September 27th, 1822.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is September 27th, 1822: Reading the Rosetta Stone.

Act One

It’s July 21st, 1798, near Cairo, Egypt, over 1,400 years after a laborer found an engraved stone in the rubble of an old temple.

From his saddle, the 29-year-old French General Napoleon Bonaparte peers across the sands into the distance. The Pyramids of Giza rise high on the horizon, but Napoleon is not here for sightseeing. Instead, he’s keeping his eye on a dust cloud between the pyramids and his army. It’s an ominous sign that the Egyptian cavalry is on the move and Napoleon’s army is about to come under attack.

Nine years ago, King Louis XVI was deposed in the French Revolution, and the other monarchies of Europe responded by declaring war on France. In the conflicts that followed, Napoleon worked his way up through the ranks of the French army to become the country’s most successful general. Three weeks ago, he landed in Egypt at the head of a French invasion force, with orders to use the country as a base to disrupt the British shipping in the Mediterranean.

But Napoleon doesn’t just have soldiers under his command. Like many of his contemporaries in late-18th century Europe, Napoleon is fascinated by Egyptian history and culture. So, as well as his military force, he’s also brought along a host of experts to learn more about Egypt under the ancient pharaohs. But before they can begin their research, Napoleon’s army needs to take control of the country.

As the Egyptian cavalry nears, Napoleon decides that it’s time to use a new tactic his army has been working on. Rather than stand in long lines to receive the cavalry charge, Napoleon wants his army to form squares. Usually, cavalry charges aim to burst through an infantry line, splitting the formation and allowing the mounted soldiers to attack the undefended rear. But Napoleon thinks that a square formation will create four equally well-defended sides, each bristling with bayonets, pikes, and muskets.

So soon, signalmen quickly pass on Napoleon’s orders to his division commanders, and soldiers hustle to get into position. When the Egyptian cavalry does arrive, the attacking horsemen can’t find a weak spot. Riders that come too close are unseated by pikes. Those that hang back are picked off with muskets. Over the course of the next hour, the Egyptian cavalry charges the French again and again, but every attack is repelled. By the end of the day, thousands of Egyptian horses and cavalrymen are dead, while the French losses amount to less than 300.

This Battle of the Pyramids, as the French victory will become known, is a decisive moment in the invasion of Egypt. And three days later, Napoleon will march into the Egyptian capital and depose the ruling Sultan. Now, with Napoleon firmly in charge of the country, his scholarly companions are free to begin their part of the mission: the study of Egyptian history.

*

It's July 15th, 1799, at the town of Rosetta, Egypt, one year after the Battle of the Pyramids.

28-year-old Lieutenant Pierre-Francois Bouchard removes his cap and wipes the sweat from his brow. It’s sweltering, but Lieutenant Bouchard hasn’t got time to rest. His men have orders to repair an old Egyptian stone fort. So, Lieutenant Bouchard replaces his cap and gets back to work, helping his soldiers rebuild a collapsed section of the perimeter wall.

But as Lieutenant Bouchard sorts through the rubble where the old wall has toppled, an unusual stone catches his eye. Unlike the rest of the sandstone blocks, this is darker, and its shape is less regular. Lieutenant Bouchard nudges a few smaller rocks from the stone’s surface with his boot. As he does so, the dark stone catches the light—and he realizes that there’s writing carved on it.

Lieutenant Bouchard bends down to examine the stone more closely. But as he sweeps dust from the surface, he frowns. Some of the carvings look like hieroglyphs—the ancient pictograms used as writing during the time of the pharaohs. And then, with a start, Lieutenant Bouchard realizes that this stone inscription might be thousands of years old. He figures he’d better pass this discovery up the chain of command so the scholars who’ve joined the expedition can take a look at it.

In short order, the stone ends up in the possession of Lieutenant Bouchard’s divisional commander, General Jacques-Francois Menou. General Menou is an amateur Egyptologist, and he’s so impressed with Lieutenant Bouchard’s unusual find that he decides to keep hold of it.

But General Menou has no idea just how important this Rosetta Stone is. It's not just an inscription. It’s the key that’ll help Egyptologists decipher the as-yet unreadable ancient Egyptian language—but only after Rosetta Stone ends up in the capital city of France’s most bitter enemy.

Act Two

It’s fall 1801 in Alexandria, Egypt, two years after the Rosetta Stone was rediscovered by a French soldier.

31-year-old Englishman Edward Daniel Clarke moves silently through the city’s back streets. The guide that Edward is following turns and offers a reassuring smile, but Edward’s heart is pounding. As a historian, Edward is used to studying the past from the comfort of a chair. But tonight, he’s on a covert mission to steal the Rosetta Stone.

Ever since the French people deposed King Louis XVI, France has been at war with Britain. Right now, the conflict is not going well for the new French Republic. Nine months ago, the British invaded French-controlled Egypt to open up a new battlefront. And soon after, the French army was in retreat. General Napoleon Bonaparte abandoned his troops, returning to Paris to lead a coup d’etat against the floundering government. The general he left behind in Egypt, General Jacques-Francois Menou, was then forced to surrender. And now, the British and French commanders in Egypt are carving out a peace deal—but negotiations have faltered over what to do about the plunder the French have seized over the past three years. In particular, General Menou refuses to hand over his most prized souvenir: the Rosetta Stone.

Frustrated by General Menou's stubbornness, a French officer has taken it upon himself to break the deadlock. He knows where the Rosetta Stone is hidden—and he’s offered to lead the British to it. The British Army has recruited Edward Daniel Clarke to make sure that the Rosetta Stone is the genuine article before they snatch it from under General Menou's nose.

So tonight, the French informant leads Edward on a twisting path through the shadowy backstreets of Alexandria. Edward has no idea where they are going. But the informant seems confident, and eventually, they come to a stop in an alleyway. That’s when Edward recognizes where they are—right behind General Menou's residence.

The informant creeps up to a cart that’s been left in the alley. He quietly lifts a carpet and hidden underneath is the Rosetta Stone. The French informant whispers that General Menou plans to smuggle the Stone out of Egypt when he ships the rest of his personal possessions back to France. But if the British take it now, he’ll never get the chance.

After a brief examination, Edward confirms that the stone is the real thing. So quickly, British soldiers are sent to load the heavy artifact onto a gun carriage and whisk it away. By the time dawn breaks, the Rosetta Stone is in British hands—and General Menou is powerless to get it back.

From Egypt, the Rosetta Stone is then taken to London, where it’s placed in the British Museum. Prior to its arrival, the curators there knew the Rosetta Stone bore an old inscription—but on closer examination, they realize there are actually three different languages carved into the stone. The top part is inscribed with hieroglyphs, still indecipherable to the West. The middle section is carved in Demotic Egyptian, another system of ancient text that historians can’t read. But the bottom part of the stone is written in ancient Greek, which is understood by experts. After they translate this part of the inscription, the message on the Rosetta Stone is finally revealed. It’s the record of a gift of grain and silver that Pharaoh Ptolemy V sent to a temple in northern Egypt.

Although the stone is little more than an ancient gift receipt, the British Museum curators are excited by the potential it offers. Because if it is the same text that has been written in three different languages, experts might be able to use the one language they do understand to decipher the two others they don’t.

But this is easier said than done. The British Museum’s Egyptologists pore over the Rosetta Stone for weeks, but they make no progress in matching up the ancient Greek with the Demotic or hieroglyphic inscriptions. After the experts in London finally admit defeat, the museum’s curators decide to make casts of the Rosetta Stone and send them to other museums across Britain. Then, prints of the inscription are also distributed across Europe.

For the next 20 years, Egyptologists will work to decipher the writing. British expert Thomas Young will eventually manage to translate the Demotic inscription. But he’ll hit a wall in his attempt to read the hieroglyphs, and many will conclude that this part of the stone must record a different message to the Demotic and Greek inscriptions. But one Frenchman will refuse to give up the challenge, and after years of work, he will finally crack the code and solve the riddle of the Rosetta Stone.

Act Three

It’s September 27th, 1822, at a lecture hall in Paris, France, 23 years after the Rosetta Stone was rediscovered in Egypt.

Standing before a rapt audience, 31-year-old Jean-Francois Champollion gestures to a large illustration of the Rosetta Stone. He points to specific hieroglyphs, explaining in turn what each one means, as the audience nods in growing understanding.

Ever since he was a child, Jean-Francois had a passion for Egyptology. He spent years studying ancient languages, hoping to become the first person to decipher Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Recently, British Egyptologist Thomas Young made an important breakthrough, managing to identify the hieroglyphs used to spell the name “Ptolemy”. And just a few weeks ago, Jean-Francois was given the text of a different hieroglyphic inscription in which the name “Cleopatra” had been deciphered. With these two names, Jean-Francois identified enough characters to make a breakthrough and read the rest of the inscription on the Rosetta Stone. Now, he’s outlining the hieroglyphic alphabet to his audience.

As Jean-Francois finishes his lecture, the audience rises to their feet in enthusiastic applause. Thomas Young himself steps forward to offer congratulations, although he’ll later complain that the Frenchman didn’t give him enough credit for his role in deciphering the hieroglyphs. Instead, Jean-Francois alone is celebrated as the man who cracked the code.

The publication of Jean-Francois’s research opens up a whole new avenue in Egyptology. After decades of frustration, experts are now able to read hieroglyphic inscriptions on temples, tombs, and monuments across Egypt. Scholars will use this newfound knowledge to piece together the long and complex history of the pharaohs, and new archaeological excavations at the Great Pyramids and Valley of the Kings will spur Egyptomania to even higher levels. But no find will have a bigger impact on historians’ understanding of the distant past than the Rosetta Stone, the secrets of which were finally revealed by Jean-Francois Champollion on September 27th, 1822.

Outro

Next on History Daily. September 30th, 1520. Suleiman becomes Sultan of the mighty Ottoman Empire and sets his sights on achieving what his father could not: conquering Western Europe.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Matthew Filler.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves.

Edited by Joel Callen.

Managing producer, Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.