It was discovered there in July 1799 by French officer Pierre-François Bouchard during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt.
When the British defeated the French they took the stone to London under the Capitulation of Alexandria in 1801.
found at Rosetta" in a contemporary catalogue of the artefacts discovered by the French expedition and surrendered to British troops in 1801.
It has been on public display at the British Museum almost continuously since 1802 and is the most visited object there. Study of the decree was already underway when the first complete translation of the Greek text was published in 1803.
It has been on public display at the British Museum almost continuously since 1802 and is the most visited object there. Study of the decree was already underway when the first complete translation of the Greek text was published in 1803.
Jean-François Champollion announced the transliteration of the Egyptian scripts in Paris in 1822; it took longer still before scholars were able to read Ancient Egyptian inscriptions and literature confidently.
These additions were removed when the stone was cleaned in 1999, revealing the original dark grey tint of the rock, the sparkle of its crystalline structure, and a pink vein running across the top left corner.
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