WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: How the Rosetta Stone Works 0:00:00.880 --> 0:00:03.320 Hey there everyone, it's me Josh and for this week's 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:06.000 s Y s K Selex, I've chosen a two thousand 0:00:06.080 --> 0:00:10.080 thirteen episode, How the Rosetta Stone Works. It's kind of 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:13.240 amazing actually that had it not been for this one 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:15.920 government decree that happened to be written in a few 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.680 different languages, we may never have figured out what the 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:22.680 heck hieroglyphics mean, and they would have been lost forever, 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:26.640 including the culture that formed the basis of a significant 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:30.640 portion of Western civilization. So check it out. How the 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:37.040 Rosetta Stone Works. Coming at you right now. Welcome to 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:39.680 Stuff You Should Know, a production of My Heart Radios 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:47.919 How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:51.000 Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and this is 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:56.160 Stuff you Should Know, the Overly Hot Studio Edition. I 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:59.520 have a bit of a chill now, you don't, I do. 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:02.760 I'm not at all hawk. Yeah. You also said hurt 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:06.920 when our new coworker shook your hand. So what does 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:11.240 that say that it has a strong hand shape and 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:14.880 you're always cold? Yeah, it's all these lamps in here. Well, 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:18.160 Jerry's decorated. It's nice. It is nice. It's just like 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:22.679 an ikea cattalog. That's right. Um, chuck. How many times 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:27.560 have you been to Egypt? Um? Kying that trip in 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:32.039 high school? Zero? Same here. Yeah, And yet we know 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:36.800 an awful lot about Egypt. Yeah, it's popular, especially ancient Egypt. 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:39.720 Like I would wager that we probably know more about 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:44.160 ancient Egypt than modern Egypt. Yeah, most people in the West. Yeah. 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:47.640 Is there a modern Egypt? There is, and it's undergoing 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:51.880 quite a bit of turmoil right now. Um okay, I 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:53.600 just wanted to make sure that you knew that Egypt 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.320 was still around. Yes, okay. Um. Well, the reason that 0:01:57.360 --> 0:01:59.880 you and I know a lot about Egypt is thing 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:03.560 to a soft science, one of the humanities. You would 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:08.359 call it, um called egyptology, pretty on the nose name 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:11.679 for the study of ancient Egypt. Yeah, it's a real 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:15.120 popular thing and has been for a while a while, 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:17.800 but not too terribly long, I would say, about the 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:22.400 beginning of the nineteenth century. Uh. And the reason that 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:24.360 all of it was foster than that all of it 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:29.280 came about and that we you and me know about 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:34.320 Egypt was because of the discovery of a tablet known 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:38.000 as the rosetta Stone's right, but you can also go 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:39.840 back even further and make the case that if it 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:44.040 wasn't for Napoleon Bonaparte, we may not understand Egypt to 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:46.680 this day. Yeah, that little guy, he wasn't that little though, 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:49.440 Is that right? Right? He was the average height? Why? 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:51.640 Why does why do people say that? Then? Where that 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.200 come from? Because some doctor wrote down I think upon 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:57.480 his death that he was five ft two. But what 0:02:57.600 --> 0:02:59.680 a lot of people don't realize is that the doctor 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:07.240 was using the French inch, which is longer than the 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:11.160 British imperial inch. So when you translate five ft two 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.280 from the French inch to the imperial he was about 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:17.720 five six, which is average height. And uh. The other 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:20.079 reason why he was called like the little Emperor by 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:24.760 his armies was because compared to most of his bodyguards 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:27.239 and his people he had around them, he was shorter 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:29.120 than them. Yeah. I guess when you're five six, he 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:32.040 wants some six four dudes around you. So, but the 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:34.320 idea that he was a very short man is is 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:36.840 not correct. Yeah, I'd always heard that, but I didn't 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:39.480 know the story the French inch. There's your band name 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:44.840 for the day. Although I typically don't like rhyming names. 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:49.400 French inch doesn't rhyme, it's just it sounds similar. I 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:53.160 wouldn't call it a rhyme. French and inch. Yeah, French 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:57.520 of the e and the eye. Yeah, that's nipicky. Well, yeah, 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.560 it's the vowels that rhyme, that the content. Yeah, but 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:02.520 if you're Steve Maltmous and you put French at the 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:03.800 end of the line and an inch at the end 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:06.600 of another, it would be it would be rhymy, and 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:10.800 you'd sell a lot of records. That's right. Yeah. Um, yeah, 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:15.800 well there was our pavement reference episode. That's becoming a 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:20.400 daily thing too. So you want to get on with this, Yeah, 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:22.960 let's do it. We're gonna be talking Rosetta Stone, not 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:26.520 the language software, which neither one of us has ever used. 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:31.040 We're talking about the the real thing, which is actually 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.520 bigger than I thought. You know, many things are smaller 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:37.400 for me, like when you see him in person, Mona Lisa, 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:39.880 of course, Mona Lisa small. Like I went to England, 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:43.159 I was like big Ben, that ain't so big. Yeah, 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:45.720 I don't think I had the impression of big Bembo 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:48.520 just kind of underwhelmed. It definitely didn't seem big, whereas 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:51.080 the Eiffel Tower that was bigger than I thought. That 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:53.520 is where I developed a fear of heights that still 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:56.760 plagues me to this day. Like, it literally happened to 0:04:56.800 --> 0:04:59.560 me on the Eiffel Tower on the way up. Never 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:01.560 had a few of heights in my entire life. On 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:05.080 the way down, I like was hanging on to the fence, 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:07.680 and it took me forever to get down because I 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:10.680 was suddenly deathly afraid of it just hit me just 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:18.800 my brain uh changed. How old were you? Uh? Seventeen? Is? Wow? Yeah, 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:20.680 I didn't go up to the top. I probably missed out. 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:23.040 I didn't either. It was the first level that got 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:28.280 me really man. Wow, alright, so um, anyway, where was 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:29.919 I going? Oh, it's bigger than I thought it was. 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:33.680 It is um black basalt, and it weighs about three 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:39.000 quarters of a ton um inches high point five wide 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:42.239 and twelve inches deep. And it's it's large, it's heavy, 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:46.560 it's um. You didn't write this, did you know? No? Um, 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:48.760 it's about the size of a heavy coffee table. Were 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:51.760 you about to make fun of something? No? I was 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:54.520 just gonna say. Whoever wrote this reference referenced an L 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:57.880 c D TV medium size. Yeah, a medium screen l 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:00.480 C D television. Oh, by the way, thank you Teresa 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:06.720 Dove fan request. That's who requested this one. Yeah. Okay, so, um, 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.400 it's larger than I thought. And I learned a lot 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:13.440 about this. I thought the Rosetta stone because I'm a dummy, Um, 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:17.240 was literally like, here's what our alphabet is, and here's 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:19.640 what everything means. And now that you found it, you 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:22.680 can decipher everything. Yeah. I think I had the same 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:25.960 impression as well. Until I read this, I thought it 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:30.240 was like created as a key to hieroglyphics. Not at all. 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:33.640 Not so it was a government document. Basically, it's a 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:38.479 stella stella. Stella is the plural. And uh, it's not 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:43.040 just the Egyptians that use stella stella. Um, the minds 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:48.359 have largely been figured out. Their language has from old stella. Yeah. Um, 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:52.640 well and that's it. Those are the two that use stella. Yeah. 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:58.799 In this case, it's an inscription carved in three different languages, Greek, hieroglyphics, 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:04.000 and demotic t not demonic. Yeah, demotic. But since I'm 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:05.880 from the South, I saw fen my tea, so it 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:10.040 might sound like I'm saying demonic um. And basically it 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:12.760 was in the three languages to ensure that everybody could 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:15.480 read it because it was an official government decree. Not 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:19.040 super exciting though. No, it wasn't basically what the Rosetta 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:21.360 stone says. And like you said, it's in three languages. 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:25.880 There's a decree that says um, essentially that Ptolemy the 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:29.960 fifth is a great ruler and he is a righteous 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:33.240 worshiper of all the right gods, so he's okay in 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:36.679 our book. And this decree was made by some priests 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:41.840 who gathered at Memphis, and they um inscribed the stoner 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:47.280 had and inscribed and dated March. And it's not It 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:52.840 doesn't actually say March. Hieroglyphics. It says eighteen must sure, 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:57.520 which on the Egyptian calendar translates to something like um 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:02.960 March uh. And then they got the because somewhere in 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:06.880 there the references the ninth year of Ptolemy the fifth reign, 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.400 which is about so that's where they got the date 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:15.480 from the what we would in the West equated to yeah, 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.240 so um, like we said, it doesn't say anything of 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:21.520 particular interest. At the time, it was an important message, 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.880 but it's not the Rosetta stone because of what is 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:28.280 transcribed upon that stone. No, it's the fact that it's 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.760 in three different languages exactly. Yeah. So there's, like you said, 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:42.080 hieroglyphics demotic and Greek, and hieroglyphics were a sacred um alphabet. Yeah, 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.600 they used that for really important stuff. So I didn't 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:46.360 know this either. I thought just any old thing they 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:48.960 wanted to write was a hieroglyph Now that's what they 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:54.240 had demiotic for or demotic that was kind of like 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:59.520 an abbreviated shorthand more vulgar version of hieroglyphics. Yeah. And 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:04.760 in between that was hieratic um, which was slightly more 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:10.440 complicated than demotic, but less complicated and not sacred like hieroglyphics. Yeah, 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:13.520 it was like a kind of a transition between um 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:19.240 demotic and hieroglyphics cursive, right, so you can um, so 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:25.240 you could use um hieratic for like a business transaction. 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.160 But if you were saying the king is a very 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:30.439 righteous ruler and you mentioned the gods, you're going to 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:36.760 use hieroglyphics, so to have it written in Greek uh demotic, 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:40.720 which was an offshoot of hieratic which was an off 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:48.240 shoot of hieroglyphics and um, hieroglyphics. These priests that gathered 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:50.840 and issued this decree that was written on the Rosetta Stone, 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:54.120 they made sure that everyone in Egypt two was literate, 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:56.560 could read this one way or another. Yeah, And it 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:58.240 was sort of not a stroke of luck. I mean, 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:00.400 it was just smart thinking at the time, but ended 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:03.439 up being a stroke of luck because the three languages, 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:05.760 I mean, without that, I don't think we we may 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:08.240 have never been able to figure out hieroglyphics. No, agreed, 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:12.120 and I've been lost forever exactly. Um. And that's that's 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:14.480 not the only way that the Rosetta Stone was kind 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:18.319 of a bit of fortune. But um. So the reason 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:21.160 that it was lost was up until the fourth century 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:25.520 a d any average Egyptian could have read the Rosetta 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:29.679 Stone one way or another. But after that the egypt 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:35.480 it left the pharonic stage. Cleopatro is the last pharaoh 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:37.800 of Egypt, and then it came to be ruled by 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:43.200 the Greeks. Later on the Romans, the Tlamites, um and 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:48.199 a bunch of different foreigners or different groups, and with 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:52.400 these groups came the introduction of new gods and the 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:58.480 suppression of old gods. And since hieroglyphics were um very 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:02.920 much religious nature. They're sacred or holy, but associated with 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:07.000 those old gods, hieroglyphics itself came to be cut off, 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:11.880 stop suppressed. Yeah, especially Christianity. Um. They tended to want 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:16.240 to get rid of other competing gods and languages that 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:18.200 are tied to those gods a right. But luckily we 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:22.360 still had Demotic, that's right. And Demotic wasn't taboo. Um. 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:27.720 That eventually became what's known as Coptic, and Coptic used 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:31.320 um some Greek um and then a little bit of 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:34.840 still of the hieroglyphic symbols. So there's still like this 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:38.360 is just a little bit, very tenuous link between Coptic 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:42.160 and hieroglyphics. But then Coptic is lost, it's pushed out 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:46.320 by Arabic. Yeah, and then that was like way gone, 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:50.760 goodbye hieroglyphics. That's it. That was like the hieroglyphics is 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:54.600 no longer understood by anyone walking planet Earth. And that 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:59.800 means that all of the ancient Egyptian civilization itself was lost. Yeah, 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:03.839 that and years aside from its structures. Um, the the 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:07.120 thought put into it, the reasoning behind it, all the explanations, 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:09.280 all of the inscriptions, all the writing all over these 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:13.440 ancient buildings are understood by no one now, and then 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:17.320 as a result of that, the buildings themselves, the last 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:23.640 vestiges of this ancient civilization, are deconstructed and used for 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:28.319 the next wave by new rulers, and so ancient Egyptian 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:32.600 culture is lost to to the mists of time. Yeah wow, 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:35.760 thanks very nice. Yeah, there was no love lost. They 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:38.319 were basically like, we don't need this language anymore, we 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:41.520 don't need these sacred buildings anymore. They're paying anyway, Let's 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:44.640 tear them all down, build up new ones. And oddly, 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:49.520 the Rosetta stone was actually used as a buttress in 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.880 a wall of a new building. Yes, so part of 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:57.360 the construction, right, that's how. This is another way that 0:12:57.400 --> 0:12:59.680 this is all the stroke of luck after strokes of luck. 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:02.080 So the first stroke of luck, as you pointed out, 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:04.880 is that they just happen to decree that this thing 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:08.880 be written in three languages. Yeah, okay, same message in 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:15.199 three languages. Then it's used for a building a wall, right, Yeah. 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:18.920 Then it happens to be discovered by some French who 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:22.520 are marooned in Egypt because they got crushed by the 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:25.240 British right when they tried to invade. Yeah, I guess 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:29.120 let's talk about that person. The French thought, hey, we 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.760 need to we need to get a stronghold on India eventually, 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:34.760 and Napoleon said, I think a good way to do 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:39.200 that is to start a little further away, and let's 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:43.480 say Egypt. Let's cut off the the Brits access to 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:46.640 the Nile River and that will really help our cause. Unfortunately, 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.600 the Brits at a great navy and pretty much destroyed 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:53.240 all their ships and stranded them in Egypt for what 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:56.840 nineteen years? Yeah? Yeah, And so for the French, whose 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:01.679 ships were now at the bottom of Abu Here bay Um, 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:05.320 they decided that they really kind of needed to set 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:11.400 themselves to creating forts, like since we're here, right um. 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:14.800 And it wasn't just military that was there part of 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:18.280 this invasion, this um strategy that Napoleon had come up 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:21.640 with to take over Egypt, it was kind of a 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:25.120 hearts and mind strategy too, and so he created something 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:27.760 called the Institute of Egypt, also known as the Scientific 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:34.479 and Artistic Commission UH. Mineralogists mathematicians, art historians, of engineers, chemists, 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:37.720 all like all of these people from the letters and 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:44.000 sciences um brought together to understand and study Egypt. Yeah. 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:47.040 They were actually given military rank, but they weren't. I 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:50.400 think that was just more of a here, just so 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:54.280 we'll call you military, Like they weren't from military backgrounds, 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:58.280 so they're thinkers. But they were among this invading force 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:01.840 that was less ended in France, so as the real 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:05.000 military guys were billing the forts, the people from the 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:08.520 Institute Egypt starts studying Egypt. Yeah, I guess they were 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:14.320 the first Egyptologists. Yeah. Boy, it was close. Uh, they 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:18.160 definitely were. Uh, and it was very covert operation, Like 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.400 they weren't really allowed to talk about what they were 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.720 doing that much except to just say, hey, we're following 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:26.280 Napoleon's orders, acting on behalf of the good of the 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:30.000 French Republic. This is what we're doing. Don't ask any questions, Yeah, 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:32.040 that's what. Don't ask why I have this measuring tape 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:35.960 out or why I'm transcribing things from papyrus. But they did, um, 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:40.240 they did become I guess, embedded with the local population 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:42.400 as well to help learn as much as they could. 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:46.400 And so it's under this climate that French soldier one day, 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:53.080 UM finds this very polished black stone that's inscribed and 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:56.560 something about it told him that it was pretty important. 0:15:56.640 --> 0:16:01.560 So we took it to these um early gyptologists, the French, 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:05.240 and said, you guys think this is important and they 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:10.440 said yes, yeah. That was Lieutenant Pierre Francois Bouchard, and uh, 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:13.040 he took it to his boss and they they said, okay, 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:14.960 this is weird that this is built into a wall, 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.960 but it's clearly something of note and maybe we should 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:22.280 take a closer look at it. And um, immediately they 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.240 started to get to work on trying to transcribe it. 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:28.720 Super difficult at the time, um, and would prove to 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:33.120 be difficult over the years. UM. It eventually ended up 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:36.920 in the hands of England, of course, but luckily these uh, 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:41.360 the Institute of Egypt people made copies of it. Yeah. 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:44.720 I think that like etchings or the plaster molds and things, 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:48.880 I'm sure, yeah, but they had readable copies of the 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.440 Rosetta stone, so when they did give it up to 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:54.880 the British, it wasn't entirely lost to them, that's right, 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:58.040 and give it up as in not here have this. 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:01.920 It was more like here, we're making this in the 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:04.360 Treaty of Alexandria. We're gonna take this in a bunch 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:08.639 of other stuff. So now basically you have the French 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.680 and the British both have the Rosetta stone. The one 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.320 group that doesn't are the Egyptians, but we'll get to 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:37.439 that later. Both of them recognize that this is a 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:42.640 very very important something. They know that it's some sort 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:45.480 of decree. They recognize that it's in three different languages, 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:48.399 and I think it becomes obvious to them that this 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:53.960 could be the key to understanding higher glyphs, which people 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:57.359 have tried to understand. This is not new people going 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:03.720 back to a fellow named um Hoopolo who was a 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:08.000 fifth century scholar. Supposedly he may not have actually existed. 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:15.199 Um he created basically what was a translation for hieroglyphics, right, 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.480 but it was a false translation, as we'll see. But 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:23.240 you know, dating back basically from the moment that hieroglyphics 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:27.320 were lost to history, people have tried to understand them. 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:30.160 So these this this was the British and the French 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:32.280 were aware of this, like this may be the key 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:36.439 to these mysterious hieroglyphics and this is important, so we're 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:38.600 going to try to translate it. Yeah. Well it became 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:41.760 a race really because they didn't like each other very 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:43.800 much and they both wanted to be the first ones 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:46.680 to to figure out what these hieroglyphics meant and how 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:51.080 to unlock this history and um, so they sent their best, 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:53.320 in their brightest. On the English side, the British side, 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:56.800 it was a scholar named Thomas Young, and then on 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:01.320 the French side we had Jean Francois show Polion, who 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.360 he was sort of born to do this. Apparently he 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.959 was way into Egypt as a kid even and as 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:11.040 a young child said I'm gonna I'm gonna figure out 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:14.240 hieroglyphics one day. Yeah. He was even called the Egyptian 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:18.080 because he had dark skin and dark hair. And um, 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.480 I think a magician like foretold his fame one day. Yeah, 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:23.960 when he was born. Supposedly a magician said this guy 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:27.320 is gonna be famous, and and he was and um, yeah, 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:31.440 he was a very talented linguist. He studied under a 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:39.360 guy named um Sylvester de Sassy. Yeah, Antoine Isaac Sylvester 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:43.400 de Sassy. Uh, he um, who would take a crack 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:48.399 at the Rosetta stone. But he trained Uh Shampolion. Is 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:53.119 that how we're saying it? Well, yeah, sure he trained him. Um, 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:57.119 but Champoleon quickly became went from student to master. He 0:19:57.200 --> 0:20:00.160 applied for he applied to be a student at an 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:03.840 institute in Paris, and they were impressed enough with his 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:06.040 application that they said, how about you just skip the 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:08.800 school part and come beyond the faculty. That's pretty good. Yeah, 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:11.840 that's a talented linguist. Yeah. They said the same thing 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:13.840 when I applied to Georgia. Is that right? Like you 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:16.199 just want to go and be an English teacher? Yeah? Na, 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:18.520 oh really you turned down? Huh sure I wanted to 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:24.240 be a student. Oh gotcha. Um. So before all this happens, Um, 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:28.000 we we have the Greek inscription transcribed, which that was 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:31.440 Reverend Stephen Watson in eighteen o two. And I don't 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.200 want to say it was no big deal, but there 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:36.239 were quite a few people that could have done this. 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:39.720 It wasn't like unlocking hieroglyphics, but it was a necessary 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:42.560 part of the process. So we want to give him 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:44.760 his due. So we have a we have a translation 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:49.400 and accurate translation of what the says exactly. So that's 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:53.440 step one. And if you have one translated, then if 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:55.160 you're a linguist, I guess. I mean it sounds really 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:58.120 difficult to do too. I mean it's I can't imagine 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:03.440 the painstaking the process of figuring out and alphabet. Yeah, 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:05.119 I mean, I think about how hard it is to 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:09.600 translate a well known language in a language that you speak. 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:16.920 Imagine translating uh, language that's totally lost into something understandable. Um. 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:19.159 So we had the Greek and then eventually we had 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:25.240 the Demotic as well. Um. Yeah, thanks to Yeah Antoine Uh. 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:27.920 And that same year, at the same time, a Swedish 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:34.000 diplomat named Aker balade Um also translated the demotic um 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:36.639 and they both went about it two different ways. I 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:39.600 thought this was pretty interesting. Yeah, So do saucy Um 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:42.639 figured out that there were two proper names at least 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:46.840 in there, Ptolemy and Alexander, and he used those to 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:52.119 match up sounds and symbols. Um Aker Blade probably had 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:56.640 the bigger breakthrough. He used a different technique. He recognized 0:21:56.720 --> 0:22:01.399 that there was something similar between Demotic and Coptic, and 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:04.800 he was well schooled and Coptic, which helped obviously. Yeah, 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:07.640 that that was his big breakthrough. He he figured out 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:11.000 what words spelled love, temple and Greek, and he used 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:16.080 that to form basically this rough uh structure for Demotic 0:22:16.160 --> 0:22:19.160 based on his awareness of Coptic. Yeah, that's only eleven letters. 0:22:19.160 --> 0:22:21.800 That's pretty impressive. Yeah, but I mean, if you've got 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:24.760 eleven letters, that's a decent I think they called it 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:27.520 a skeletal outline. I guess that's what you'd have. Well, yeah, 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:30.160 I mean, especially since Coptic was only what twenty two 0:22:30.160 --> 0:22:32.959 plus a couple more from hieroglyphics, it's like a big 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:36.360 wheel of fortune game, yes to that, right. So the 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:39.960 thing is, though, this established connection now between coptic and 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:44.280 Demotic and then Demonic and hieroglyphics, since they're side by side, 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:48.119 that kind of opened up this mentality that would be 0:22:48.160 --> 0:22:52.520 needed to finally crack the hieroglyphics for for um, the 0:22:52.600 --> 0:22:56.160 Rosetta Stone. And Thomas Young was the first to really 0:22:56.160 --> 0:22:59.520 try it. He was the British guy, and he got 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:04.560 somewhat far, but he gave up. Yeah, he in eighteen fourteen. 0:23:04.680 --> 0:23:07.639 His big breakthrough was figuring out what a cartouche was, 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:12.400 and that is Um, it's they say oval, but it's 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:15.400 a little more squared away with round edges. But it's 0:23:15.400 --> 0:23:19.040 a loop basically with hieroglyphic characters in it. And he 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:23.320 figured out that these are not only proper names, but 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:27.320 royal names. Anything containing containing a cartouche is a royal name, 0:23:27.960 --> 0:23:30.840 which was a big breakthrough because he identified tolem Me 0:23:31.760 --> 0:23:37.919 the pharaoh's name in one of the car cartouches cartouche cartouches, 0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:42.480 and uh, his queen Baronica was in there as well, 0:23:42.560 --> 0:23:44.840 So he said, you know what again, I've got these 0:23:44.840 --> 0:23:48.080 two names now to work with. Um. But he was 0:23:48.119 --> 0:23:53.119 still working on Haro Polo's false premise that hieroglyphics was 0:23:53.200 --> 0:23:55.439 not phonetic in nature and that it was based just 0:23:55.520 --> 0:24:00.080 on symbols. Right, That's what Harropolo's big contribution was to 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:04.639 confuse a centuries worth of scholars. It's not bad for 0:24:04.760 --> 0:24:07.080 young because he was onto something. And if he wasn't 0:24:07.160 --> 0:24:10.040 using that the fake or or not fake but just 0:24:10.080 --> 0:24:12.280 the poor system, then he might have figured it out. Right. 0:24:12.560 --> 0:24:15.800 So this is the thing, like everyone believed Popolo. Because 0:24:16.040 --> 0:24:22.120 Roppolo claimed that his translation was a direct translation from hieroglyphic. 0:24:22.720 --> 0:24:26.080 It was written in the fifth century a d. Right 0:24:26.080 --> 0:24:30.119 around the time we lost hieroglyphics, so it was considered 0:24:30.520 --> 0:24:38.320 to be a primary source and basically completely reasonable. But 0:24:38.359 --> 0:24:40.920 it was wrong. It was wrong because it said that 0:24:41.119 --> 0:24:45.840 hieroglyphics are symbolic. So like, if you see a cart 0:24:46.600 --> 0:24:48.520 a picture that looks like a cart next to a 0:24:48.560 --> 0:24:53.160 cat and then a lizard, what that should say under 0:24:53.280 --> 0:24:59.360 Hiropolo's translation is cart, cat lizard. This kept throwing everybody 0:24:59.400 --> 0:25:03.000 off because it didn't make sense, especially right, especially when 0:25:03.040 --> 0:25:05.800 compared to the Greek translation. In the translation of Demotic, 0:25:06.200 --> 0:25:09.320 it didn't make any sense whatsoever. So, like you said, 0:25:09.359 --> 0:25:11.960 Young gave up, but he published his findings, and you 0:25:12.000 --> 0:25:14.679 can really strongly make a case that had it not 0:25:14.800 --> 0:25:20.199