The Rosetta Stone and its Impact on Today

The Rosetta Stone is one of the most remarkable and important ancient discoveries. Currently housed within the British Museum in London, the 2,000+ year old Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799, was the key to allowing scholars to decipher the languages of Greek and Egyptian, both hieroglyphics and demotics, for the first time ever.

Because it contained the same text in two different languages and three different scripts; Greek, hieroglyphics and demotic, it unlocked translation capabilities for both, enabling scholars to learn about an entirely new world. It was literally a key to the past. 

The Rosetta Stone is perhaps the most impactful discovery in all of archaeology, with respect to what it allowed us to discover. It is a great example of how things from the past can have a major impact on the present day, and new things we are able to learn. It's also a great example of how easily knowledge and entire languages can be lost. Imagine if we had never found it, or it was damaged/destroyed in war - ancient Egypt would remain even more of a mystery to us than it is today.