로제타 스톤(Rosetta Stone)과 이집트 알파벳

The Rosetta Stone and Egyptian Alphabets

&nbsp;&nbsp;The stele, which was discovered fortuitously by French expeditionary forces in Lower Egypt in August 1799, drastically changed our outlooks on Egypt. It was unearthed by French soldiers who were repairing Fort St. Julien, located in a village called Rosetta on the Mediterranean shore, in preparation for defense against British attack. Although the inscriptions on the stele were carved with three different types of characters, hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek, from top to bottom, the meaning of each of the inscriptions is the same. As a result, the Rosetta Stone became the key in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. It was a watershed in understanding the daily life and routines of ancient Egyptians and was the foundation in establishing a modern Egyptology.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Until the hieroglyphs was finally deciphered by Jean-Francois Champollion in 1824, there had been many speculations, which were all incorrect, concerning the meaning of hieroglyphic inscriptions on ancient Egyptian tombstones, obelisks, papyruses, walls of Pyramids, etc. The reason for this is that most people, including both travellers and scholars, tried to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs according to what the hieroglyphs pictorially represented. They assumed that it was out of question that Ancient Egyptians would have used the hieroglyphs as characters in a phonetic alphabet. This approach failed in attempting to understand the true meanings of the hieroglyphs for 1400 years. This example teaches us a valuable lesson in studying about foreign countries, especially those in the Middle East. Also, in many textbooks, essays, and journals published in Korea, some writers still argue that the Egyptian hieroglyphs are characters of a pictorial writing system, much like Chinese characters. This outlook on Egyptian hieroglyphs is greatly flawed and should be revised as soon as possible.