Which ancient writing system was deciphered after the Rosetta Stone was found in 1799?

Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered after the Rosetta Stone was found in 1799.

The Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele discovered by French soldiers near the Egyptian town of Rashid, called Rosetta in English, during Napoleon’s campaign. It records a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BCE for Ptolemy V and presents the same text in three scripts: hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Ancient Greek.

Because scholars could already read Ancient Greek, the parallel text provided a crucial key. Thomas Young made important advances, including identifying connections between royal names. Jean-François Champollion then demonstrated in 1822 that hieroglyphs represented a combination of sound signs, word signs, and determinatives rather than purely symbolic pictures.

The stone is now in the British Museum. The phrase “Rosetta Stone” has become a general expression for any breakthrough key to decoding a difficult system. The inscription itself is a Ptolemaic political decree, not a general dictionary of ancient Egyptian.