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Rosetta Stone - Artifact
The Rosetta Stone is an ancient Egyptian stone tablet artifact inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. It contributed greatly to the decipherment of the principles understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs. This category elaborates on the history, research and findings about this unique historical artifact.
572 Questions
What was Rosetta stone useful for?
The Rosetta Stone is a stone with writing on it Egyptian and Greek, using hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek scripts. The hieroglyphic was the script used for important or religious documents. Demotic was the common script of Egypt and Greek the language of the rulers of Egypt at that time.
What effect did the discovery of the Rosetta stone have?
It allowed Champollion to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs into ancient Greek and then from Greek into modern romance languages. The hieroglyphics could be understood for the first time in over 1,000 years.
When were the ica stones found?
The Ica stones were discovered in the 1960s in Ica Province, Peru. Local farmers reportedly unearthed these stones while digging for irrigation canals, with many of them featuring carvings that depict dinosaurs, ancient humans, and various scenes. The authenticity of the stones has been widely debated, with many considering them to be hoaxes or modern forgeries.
Where were Egyptian symbols first deciphered?
Egyptian symbols were being deciphered by many people by studying the Rosetta Stone. Thomas Young and other scholars worked to decipher the symbols. Jean Francois Champollion is credited as the first person to read Egyptian symbols by studying the works of Young and the Rosetta Stone.
Why was the eye painted only on one side in Egyptian paintings?
When studying ancient cultures it is important to forget everything you know about modern ideas and concepts, which did not exist at the time.
Ancient Egyptian artists wanted to portray human beings and objects in a way that would make them instantly recognisable, so each element was drawn in a standard way. Faces are usually drawn in profile (from one side), but an eye seen from the side would have been difficult to understand, so the eye was drawn as if seen from the front. This is important because the same mixture of viewpoints carries on throughout each figure - the shoulders are seen frontally, but the arms and legs are seen from one side. This mix of viewpoints is blended into a single form, intended to convey the most lifelike aspects of each part.
A table would often be shown with its top in plan view (as if seen from above), and with the legs shown from one side.
These are called "conventions", the standard way of doing things, which would have been perfectly normal for Egyptian artists. Sometimes they broke away from convention, showing dancers or acrobats in unusual stances, or a very few faces from the front - when both eyes would be depicted.
Where was the first stone building made?
The first stone buildings are believed to have been constructed in the ancient Near East, particularly in regions such as Mesopotamia and the Levant. One of the earliest examples is the Ziggurat of Ur in modern-day Iraq, dating back to around 2100 BCE. Additionally, the use of stone in architecture is evident in the megalithic structures of Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, which dates back to around 9600 BCE. These early structures marked significant advancements in human architectural practices.
When was The Standing Stones of Caithness created?
The Standing Stones of Caithness was created in 2003.
