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Cracking Codes: The Rosetta Stone and Decipherment
Napoleon's troops discovered a granitoid slab in the village of Rosetta in the western Delta in 1799. The Rosetta Stone was to become one of the most famous Egyptian antiquities in the world as well as an instantly recognizable icon of script and decipherment. In this exciting, beautifully illustrated work, Richard Parkinson tells the story of the Stone's discovery and the so-called battle of the decipherers that it inspired. Published to accompany a major exhibition at the British Museum celebrating the bicentenary of the Stone's discovery, and including a selective catalog of the exhibits, this book also examines the wider issues of script and writing in ancient Egypt and beyond.
The Rosetta Stone is a fragment of a stela inscribed with a priestly decree in honor of Ptolemy V. The main significance of the text lies not in its content, however, but in the fact that it is written in three scripts—hieroglyphic, demotic, and ancient Greek. Early Orientalists recognized immediately the potential of the Stone for the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Thomas Young made great advances, especially with the demotic text, but it was Jean-François Champollion who made the final breakthrough in 1822. In so doing he cracked much more than two Egyptian scripts: He opened up Egyptian culture as a whole to historians.
Among the subjects discussed in Cracking Codes are the relationship between hieroglyphs and art, the social prestige of literacy, and the power of writing and its practical aspects (scribal equipment and training). A brief description of other decipherments is also given, drawing on examples such as Linear B and Meroitic—a language which remains to be read.
A selection of the History Book Club, the Book-of-the-Month Club, and the Quality Paperback Book Club
The Rosetta Stone is a fragment of a stela inscribed with a priestly decree in honor of Ptolemy V. The main significance of the text lies not in its content, however, but in the fact that it is written in three scripts—hieroglyphic, demotic, and ancient Greek. Early Orientalists recognized immediately the potential of the Stone for the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Thomas Young made great advances, especially with the demotic text, but it was Jean-François Champollion who made the final breakthrough in 1822. In so doing he cracked much more than two Egyptian scripts: He opened up Egyptian culture as a whole to historians.
Among the subjects discussed in Cracking Codes are the relationship between hieroglyphs and art, the social prestige of literacy, and the power of writing and its practical aspects (scribal equipment and training). A brief description of other decipherments is also given, drawing on examples such as Linear B and Meroitic—a language which remains to be read.
A selection of the History Book Club, the Book-of-the-Month Club, and the Quality Paperback Book Club
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
84 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 26, 2023
The title makes it sound like this book is one of the many that describe how Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered, but because it's meant to accompany a museum exhibit, its focus is a bit different. The exhibit and the book were designed to put the Rosetta Stone into context and describe what role various scripts played in Egyptian culture, and the book does so very well.
The first chapter is about the stone and the decipherment process, but it doesn't dedicate all that much space to Champollion's cracking of the code, despite hitting all the most important points. It ranges much more broadly, describing Europeans' poor knowledge of Egyptian scripts from Roman times onward, the fortuitous discovery of the stone, the circumstances in Ptolemaic times that caused the stone's decree to be written, and finally the struggle to make sense of the decree.
The other chapters describe the basic workings of hieroglyphic writing, various quirks in how hieroglyphs were used, and the other scripts that Egyptians created. They even discuss the use of hieroglyphic symbolism in artwork and provide a mild corrective to the most authoritative books on the subject (Richard Wilkinson's Symbol & Magic in Egyptian Art and Reading Egyptian Art), which may somewhat exaggerate how much hieroglyphic symbolism shaped Egyptian art. The last chapter is about other scripts around the world that have yet to be deciphered.
If you're looking to read a story of how hieroglyphs were deciphered, this probably isn't the first book to look at; I'd recommend The Rosetta Stone and the Rebirth of Ancient Egypt or Cracking the Egyptian Code: The Revolutionary Life of Jean-François Champollion. But if you're studying the decipherment process in depth or looking to understand how writing fit into ancient Egyptian culture, I highly recommend this book.
The first chapter is about the stone and the decipherment process, but it doesn't dedicate all that much space to Champollion's cracking of the code, despite hitting all the most important points. It ranges much more broadly, describing Europeans' poor knowledge of Egyptian scripts from Roman times onward, the fortuitous discovery of the stone, the circumstances in Ptolemaic times that caused the stone's decree to be written, and finally the struggle to make sense of the decree.
The other chapters describe the basic workings of hieroglyphic writing, various quirks in how hieroglyphs were used, and the other scripts that Egyptians created. They even discuss the use of hieroglyphic symbolism in artwork and provide a mild corrective to the most authoritative books on the subject (Richard Wilkinson's Symbol & Magic in Egyptian Art and Reading Egyptian Art), which may somewhat exaggerate how much hieroglyphic symbolism shaped Egyptian art. The last chapter is about other scripts around the world that have yet to be deciphered.
If you're looking to read a story of how hieroglyphs were deciphered, this probably isn't the first book to look at; I'd recommend The Rosetta Stone and the Rebirth of Ancient Egypt or Cracking the Egyptian Code: The Revolutionary Life of Jean-François Champollion. But if you're studying the decipherment process in depth or looking to understand how writing fit into ancient Egyptian culture, I highly recommend this book.
November 29, 2023
This is a book/catalog of the 200th Anniversary of discovery (by the French) of the Rosetta Stone. Of course it ended up in the British Museum. I liked this book a lot, it was just what I was looking for. A concise history and explanation of the hieroglyphics, and less on the personalities of the decoders. That story is interesting but there are other good books on that. I was surprised that hieroglyphics are predominately phonetic. It was quite a feat to decode and for Egyptologists to read all the remaining text (the vast majority of the papyrus didn't survive) on various surfaces, including stone. I liked the comparisons in the book and the many examples. I especially liked the discussion at the end from Whitfield Diffie and Mary Fisher, contrasting decipherment vs cryptanalysis. I did some work on cryptography in an earlier life and appreciated this discussion. The overall all tone of the book definitely emphasized what you can learn, and can't learn, about an ancient culture.
August 20, 2025
4.5 stars. Fascinating, insightful, and brimming with the inspiration from historical, linguistic cryptoanalysitcs.
November 28, 2016
“Il leggere rende un uomo completo; il parlare lo rende pronto; e lo scrivere lo rende preciso. E perciò se uno scrive poco, deve avere una grande memoria; se conversa poco, deve avere uno spirito pronto; e se legge poco deve avere molta abilità per mostrare di sapere quel che non sa”.
Così scriveva Bacone in un suo famoso saggio datato 1597. Di acqua ne è passata, non solo sotto i ponti del Tamigi, ma anche sotto tutti i ponti della comunicazione del mondo. Tutto sommato, penso che le cose stanno ancora così, anche se ovviamente il mezzo millennio che ci separa da Bacone fa la differenza.
Resta il problema del comprendere in cosa consiste questa differenza, considerando che il grande saggista inglese non poteva tenere in considerazione la presenza di un corpo estraneo ai suoi tempi: la tecnologia.
Lui scriveva a distanza di pochi decenni dalla entrata in scena di un altro “medium”, altrettanto dirompente quanto i “bits & bytes” della moderna tecnologia: il libro a stampa. Un “medium” del quale nessuno avrebbe potuto allora prevedere gli sviluppi. Guarda caso, gli stessi sviluppi di cui ci stiamo occupando oggi con l’avvento di questa tecnologia alla quale possiamo allegramente assegnare la famosa affermazione anticipatrice: “il mezzo è il messaggio”, per poi scoprire che i mezzi sono diventati tanti ma il messaggio resta sempre uno. Una tecnologia che genera tanti mezzi, a partire dal libro per finire al satellite.
Martino Pietropoli su Medium scrive nel suo bel post “Scrivere dello scrivere” che non ha mai scritto tanto così come sta scrivendo da quando la IT si è impossessata di noi. Posso dire la stessa cosa io da quando il 15 agosto del 1999 alle 13.15 varcai la soglia del British Museum di Londra e vidi per la prima volta “La Stele di Rosetta”. Visitai la mostra in occasione della celebrazione del 200esimo anniversario della scoper ta della pietra e visitai la mostra “Cracking Codes”.
Conservo ancora il libro qui sopra riprodotto e il biglietto di accesso. Una pietra incredibile per la sua storia, con sopra codici comunicativi rimasti indecifrati per tanto tempo. Simboli di parole incise dalla mano dell’uomo nello spazio di una pietra che ha sfidato il tempo. Perchè questa è la “scrittura”: una sfida allo spazio e al tempo. La parola dell’uomo.
Così scriveva Bacone in un suo famoso saggio datato 1597. Di acqua ne è passata, non solo sotto i ponti del Tamigi, ma anche sotto tutti i ponti della comunicazione del mondo. Tutto sommato, penso che le cose stanno ancora così, anche se ovviamente il mezzo millennio che ci separa da Bacone fa la differenza.
Resta il problema del comprendere in cosa consiste questa differenza, considerando che il grande saggista inglese non poteva tenere in considerazione la presenza di un corpo estraneo ai suoi tempi: la tecnologia.
Lui scriveva a distanza di pochi decenni dalla entrata in scena di un altro “medium”, altrettanto dirompente quanto i “bits & bytes” della moderna tecnologia: il libro a stampa. Un “medium” del quale nessuno avrebbe potuto allora prevedere gli sviluppi. Guarda caso, gli stessi sviluppi di cui ci stiamo occupando oggi con l’avvento di questa tecnologia alla quale possiamo allegramente assegnare la famosa affermazione anticipatrice: “il mezzo è il messaggio”, per poi scoprire che i mezzi sono diventati tanti ma il messaggio resta sempre uno. Una tecnologia che genera tanti mezzi, a partire dal libro per finire al satellite.
Martino Pietropoli su Medium scrive nel suo bel post “Scrivere dello scrivere” che non ha mai scritto tanto così come sta scrivendo da quando la IT si è impossessata di noi. Posso dire la stessa cosa io da quando il 15 agosto del 1999 alle 13.15 varcai la soglia del British Museum di Londra e vidi per la prima volta “La Stele di Rosetta”. Visitai la mostra in occasione della celebrazione del 200esimo anniversario della scoper ta della pietra e visitai la mostra “Cracking Codes”.
Conservo ancora il libro qui sopra riprodotto e il biglietto di accesso. Una pietra incredibile per la sua storia, con sopra codici comunicativi rimasti indecifrati per tanto tempo. Simboli di parole incise dalla mano dell’uomo nello spazio di una pietra che ha sfidato il tempo. Perchè questa è la “scrittura”: una sfida allo spazio e al tempo. La parola dell’uomo.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews