Search query: Ancient manuscript deciphering
Video title:  There's almost no Ancient
Egyptian work of art that doesn't also include writing. - [Steven] Writing that we couldn't read. - [Beth] Although we look
back more than 5,000 years, the beginnings of
Ancient Egyptian culture. - [Steven] This was made during the reign of Ptolemy V, in a period that
we call the Ptolemaic Period, a period that follows
Alexander the Great's conquest of Ancient Egypt. Egypt at this point was ruled by a dynasty known as the Ptolemies. - [Beth] So we have Egypt being ruled by the Ptolemaic dynasty,
and that essentially means that Egypt is controlled by Greek rulers. - [Steven] The Greek city of Alexandria had been founded in Egypt. Greek law had been imposed. - [Beth] And the Ptolemies rule Egypt for almost three centuries, until ancient Rome takes over in 30 BCE. - [Steven] But in order to
understand the Rosetta Stone, it's important to understand
the political situation in Egypt at this moment. Ptolemy V, the reigning king, came to power when he was six years old. - [Beth] And as you can imagine, there was a fight for power. - [Steven] All of which is to say that this young king needed as
many allies as he could get. And he was looking to the
ancient priestly class to help him assert his power
and to stabilize the kingdom. - [Beth] During the
reign of the Ptolemies, there's a separation between
the Greek-controlled government and the priestly class, the only ones who could read and write in hieroglyphics. Greek had become the official
language of Ancient Egypt. - [Steven] But by this
late date, those Egyptians other than the priests,
who were illiterate, would have written the Egyptian language in a different script,
one known as Demotic. And this stone reflects this
historical moment in Egypt. - [Beth] At the very top,
we've got hieroglyphics, the sacred writing of the priests. In the center, the Demotic script, and at the bottom, we have Ancient Greek. And it was the recognition that we had the same text in three different scripts