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The Rosetta Stone was a black basalt rock from ancient times. The stone seems to be comparable to those rocks the nature stores sell today that are shiny on the top and back, but rough in between. The stone was over three feet long, two feet wide and 11 inches thick. The stone had writting on it from top to bottom that consisted of the languages Eygptian and Greek. However, there were different scripts of these languages in ancient times. The Stone conisted of three scripts- hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek. The hieroglyphic was carved on the very top. The demotic was in the middle and the Greek wason the bottom of the stone. The three scripts were all being used in Eygpt at the time. THe hieroglyphic was used for important religios documents, the demotic was the everyday script of Eygpt and Greek was writtin by the rulers.It was writtin in all three of these forms so that priests, goverment officals and rulers would be able to reada and understand the text.

The stone was carved in 196 B.C. but was not foun until hundreds of years later in 1799. The stone was found by French soilders who were sent to rebuild ancient forts in Eygpt. The soilders were stranded in Eygpt for three years after fighting a battle against Britian. The solider who had first made the discovery was Pierre-Francois Bouchard. The Rosetta Stone was found in the town called "Rosetta". A small town outside Alexandria, not too far from the city of Cairo.The Stone is written by a group of priests in Egypt honoring the Egyptian pharaoh. It states all of the things that the pharaoh has done that are good for the priests and the people of Egypt. after the stone was found it was sent to be dechipherd by professionals. The bottom and middle were not too dificult as the top brought about many problems.The first word on the stone that was translated was by Silvestre deSacy. The word was "Ptolmey" . One of the problems for the bottom was nobody had used the script- hieroglyphics for hundreds of years. The other problem was the top of the stone was almost illegible after so many years. A writting and text professional Jean-Francois Champollion attempted the job. He spent many years of studying other texts in hieroglypics and another ancient form of script; coptic. Finally after figuering out a few of the symbols he was finally able to translate most of the top of the stone. It was not until 1822, 23 years after being discovered, that the stone was completely translated.

Although the Rosetta Stone was found by French soilders led by Napoleon, the defeat made it English property. Due to the terms of "the Treaty of Alexander" . There was a bit of an uproar when deciding were the stone should have been stored. Finally the stone was placed in a museum in England to be exibited. It had stayed there from 1802 until 1917 without being moved. Throughout all the translating the stone remianed in the museum. It was during the end of World War 1 when a bomb scare in London caused the Stone to be moved. Throughout those two years the stone remained fifty feet below the ground of a railway in Holborn. The stone is one of the most precious and valuble of ancient artifacts and people travel from al over the world to see the stone. However, after al the translating and exhibites only the ancient Eygptians know its true value.