Rosetta Stone: Why Egypt demanding its return?

This week marks 227 years since the discovery of the Rosetta Stone near the Egyptian city of Rashid, an archaeological find that transformed the study of ancient Egypt. More than two centuries later, however, the artefact remains at the centre of a dispute between Egypt and Britain over its ownership.

The North African country has repeatedly called for its return, and an online campaign launched in 2022 by former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass has gathered more than 350,000 signatures, as an article by The National News highlights.

Hawass has said he plans to launch an international campaign once the petition reaches one million signatures.

The Rosetta Stone has been on display at the British Museum in London since 1802 after being transferred to British possession following France's defeat in Egypt.

The circumstances surrounding the stone's discovery remain contested, including the anniversary itself. While July 15 is widely recognised as the date French troops discovered the artefact near Rashid during Napoleon Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign in 1799, Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities commemorates the event on July 19, the date recorded in one of the earliest French reports announcing the find.

Cultural significance

The Rosetta Stone is the surviving fragment of a larger granodiorite stele dating to 196 BC during the reign of the Egyptian king Ptolemy V. Standing just over 1.1 metres tall, it bears the same decree inscribed in two languages using three different scripts.

The upper section is written in Egyptian hieroglyphs, the script used for religious and royal inscriptions. The middle section is in Demotic, the cursive script used for administration, commerce and everyday life. The lower section is written in Ancient Greek, the official language of Egypt's Ptolemaic rulers.

The inscription records a decree issued by Egyptian priests praising the young King Ptolemy V for supporting temples, reducing certain taxes and defending the kingdom against its enemies. Historians regard the text as a political proclamation intended to strengthen the teenage ruler's legitimacy rather than a religious document.

Unlocking ancient Egypt

The Rosetta Stone became one of archaeology's most important discoveries because its multilingual inscription provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs, whose meaning had been lost for centuries following the decline of ancient Egyptian temples.

Although scholars first relied on the Greek text to begin translating the inscription, the decisive breakthrough came in 1822 when French linguist Jean-François Champollion used his knowledge of Coptic—the last historical stage of the Egyptian language—to identify how hieroglyphs represented both sounds and words.

His work unlocked the ability to read thousands of ancient Egyptian inscriptions and transformed the understanding of one of the world's oldest civilisations. The phrase "Rosetta Stone" has since entered popular usage as a metaphor for the key to solving a complex mystery.

Continuing dispute over ownership

The artefact passed into British hands after French forces surrendered to British and Ottoman troops in Alexandria in 1801. Under the Treaty of Alexandria, it was transferred to Britain, arriving in London the following year.

Today, the original Rosetta Stone remains on display at the British Museum, while Egypt exhibits a replica at the Rashid National Museum.

The question of where the stone should ultimately reside remains unresolved. Hawass has argued that it should be displayed at the recently opened Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza alongside other treasures of ancient Egypt. Meanwhile, the Repatriate Rashid campaign contends that the artefact belongs in the city whose name it bears.

As calls for its return continue to grow, the Rosetta Stone remains not only a symbol of humanity's ability to unlock the past but also one of the world's most prominent cultural restitution disputes.

By Nazrin Sadigova