Have you met Miss Jones?. How about Miss Stone? Rosetta Stone that is. We overhear she is the talk of a South Bayview Starbucks for her excellent translation program. You know. It’s called Rosetta Stone, after the lady herself. Well, this cannot be the first time that urban mysticism has conjured up a flesh and blood person out of the ancient piece of Egyptian granite resting in the British Museum. The lady at the left is an amusing example. Rosetta is, of course, not a person but a thick tablet of script in three ancient languages — Greek, Demotic Egyptian and Egyptian hieroglyphs. In 1798, when a soldier stumbled on it, academics had been struggling to decipher hieroglyphs. It was only a matter of time until archaeologists realized the stone carried the same passage in its three separate languages. One of the languages. Greek, was well understood by academics. Thus it was that we came to truly understand just what the ancient Egyptians were chipping out on their many tombs and temples. The Rosetta Stone came into British possession when they defeated the French in northern Africa in 1802 and the Rosetta Stone has been in the British Museum for more than 200 years. The Egyptians want it back. It’s name comes from the Egyptian town of Rashid, called by Napoleon’s troops Rosette and later Rosetta. Sorry all you Miss Stones.
