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Egypt: The Rosetta Stone is an Ancient Egyptian artifact which provided the key to modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs. It is a fragment from a larger stele, with an inscription recording a decree that was issued at Memphis in 196 BCE

Egypt: The Rosetta Stone is an Ancient Egyptian artifact which provided the key to modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs. It is a fragment from a larger stele, with an inscription recording a decree that was issued at Memphis in 196 BCE

The Rosetta Stone is a fragment of a larger stele. No additional fragments were found in later searches of the Rosetta site. Owing to its damaged state, none of the three texts is absolutely complete. The Greek text contains 54 lines, of which the first 27 survive in full; the rest are increasingly fragmentary due to a diagonal break at the bottom right of the stone. The demotic text has survived best: it has 32 lines, of which the first 14 are slightly damaged on the right side. The hieroglyphic inscription has suffered the most damage. Only the last 14 lines of the hieroglyphic text can be seen.

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