No doubt about it, the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799 ranks as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries. One slab of stone deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs and demystified the history of Ancient Egypt. Now, we had a window into the real history of Ancient Egypt, not the imagined one. The story behind the Rosetta Stone gets nicely told here by Beth Harris (Director of Digital Learning at MoMA) and Steven Zucker (chair of History of Art and Design at Pratt Institute), as part of their series of Smarthistory videos. The British Museum, which houses the famous artifact, has more on the Rosetta Stone.
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