How two royal names in rings cracked hieroglyphs: Ptolemy, Cleopatra and the Rosetta Stone
30seconds
In 1799 a slab was dug up near Rosetta carrying one decree in three scripts, and nobody could read two of them. The first foothold was tiny: royal names sealed inside oval rings called cartouches.
Two names that share letters make a built-in check, because a sign appearing in both must carry the same sound. Read Ptolemy's ring, then use those signs to unlock Cleopatra's, as Champollion did on the road to 1822.
Deep dive · 4 min
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