Which civilization created the Rosetta Stone, discovered in Egypt in 1799?

The Ptolemaic Kingdom created the Rosetta Stone, which was discovered in Egypt in 1799.

The stone is a granodiorite decree issued in 196 BCE during the reign of Ptolemy V Epiphanes. It presents the same decree in three scripts: Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic Egyptian, and Ancient Greek. Because scholars could read Greek, the repeated text provided a crucial key for deciphering Egyptian writing.

French soldiers found the stone near the town of Rashid, called Rosetta by Europeans, during Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign. After the French defeat in Egypt, it became British property under the Treaty of Alexandria and was transported to London in 1802.

Thomas Young made important early advances, and Jean-François Champollion announced a broader decipherment of hieroglyphs in 1822. The stone has been displayed at the British Museum since 1802. Its text is a priestly decree, not a general historical narrative.