What three ancient writing systems appear on the Rosetta Stone?

The Rosetta Stone contains hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek writing.

The stone is a granodiorite decree issued in 196 BC during the reign of Ptolemy V. The same decree appears in three scripts: formal Egyptian hieroglyphs, the everyday Egyptian script called Demotic, and Ancient Greek, the language of the ruling administration. Because scholars could read Greek, the parallel texts provided a key to deciphering Egyptian writing.

French soldiers found the stone near Rashid, known in European languages as Rosetta, in 1799 during Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign. Thomas Young made important advances, and Jean-François Champollion is credited with the decisive decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs in the 1820s.

The Rosetta Stone is not a translation of three unrelated messages; it is one decree presented in three scripts. It is now held by the British Museum in London. The artifact’s importance comes from the linguistic comparison it made possible.