Surprise your friends when they see the Roseeta stone in your house!

The original Rosetta Stone (c. 203 BC) is one of the British Museum's proudest exhibits. Found at Rosetta--now Rashid--in the Nile Delta by Napoleon's soldiers in 1799, it contained the key to the deciphering of hieroglyphics, the language of the ancient Egyptians. On the stone are three scripts: the bottom section is in Greek; the center in demotic (popular script originated in 700-600 BC and widely used for the next thousand years); and the top in hieroglyphics.

The discovery of this slab of basalt stone has led to the translation of the Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Rosetta stone was a "thank you note" from the priests to the Greek ruler of Egypt, Ptolemy V, who reigned in the 2nd century BC for the favors he allowed them. French archeologist, Jean-Francois Champollion spent many years deciphering the symbols of the stone and led to the translation of the Egyptian hieroglyphs

Rosetta Stone Bookends are an adaptation sculpted by our artists from this ancient masterpiece.