What did Napoleon's invasion of Eqypt have to do with the Rosetta Stone?

Answer 1

It is when the Rosetta Stone was discovered.

Answer 2

Are you writing a paper on the Rosetta Stone?
An inscription was written on a stone (Rosetta) in 3 different languages. 1 of which was able to be read by modern (18th century) scholars. This was used by a long process of trail and error, to dechiper the heiroglyphgs.
When Napoleon invaded Egypt he brought all kinds of scholars and scientist with him. When the Rosetta Stone was found they realized it's importance. The english then invaded Egypt and overtook the French, they took the stone to England (even tho france tried to bargain for some antiquities) and there it was decoded.

Answer 3

The Generals of Napoleon's navy found the Rosetta stone and his artists and scientists decoded it. The modern day interest in Egyptian artifacts began when Napoleon's men "found" ancient marvels in the desert.

Answer 4

He wanted to stand on top of it to look taller.
------------------------------------------------------------
The Rosetta Stone is an ancient stele inscribed with the same passage of writing in two Egyptian language scripts and in classical Greek. It was created in 196 BC, discovered by the French in 1799, and translated in 1822 by Frenchman Jean-François Champollion. Comparative translation of the stone assisted in understanding many previously undecipherable examples of hieroglyphic writing.

The Stone is 114.4 centimeters high at its tallest point, 72.3 centimeters wide, and 27.9 centimeters thick (45.04 in. high, 28.5 in. wide, 10.9 in. thick). Weighing approximately 760 kg (1,676 pounds), it was originally thought to be granite or basalt but is currently described as granodiorite and is dark grey-pinkish in color. The Stone has been kept at the British Museum in London, England since 1802.
After Napoleon's 1798 Campaign in Egypt, the French founded an Institut de l'Egypte in Cairo, bringing many scientists and archaeologists to the region.

French Army engineer Captain Pierre-François Bouchard discovered the stone on July 15, 1799, while he was guiding construction works at Fort Julien near the Egyptian port city of Rosetta (present-day Rashid). He understood its importance and showed it to General Jacques de Menou. They decided to send the artifact to the Institut de l'Égypte, where it arrived in August 1799. The French language newspaper Courrier de l'Egypte announced the find in September 1799.

After Napoleon returned to France in 1799, 167 scholars remained behind along with a defensive force of French troops. French commanders held off British and Ottoman attacks until March 1801, when the British landed on Aboukir Bay. Scholars carried the Stone from Cairo to Alexandria alongside the troops of de Menou. French troops in Cairo capitulated on June 22 and in Alexandria on August 30.

After the French surrender, a dispute arose over the fate of French archaeological and scientific discoveries in Egypt. de Menou refused to hand over the collections, claiming that they belonged to the Institute. British General John Hely-Hutchinson refused to relieve the city until de Menou gave in. Newly arrived scholars Edward Daniel Clarke and William Richard Hamilton agreed to check the collections in Alexandria and found numerous artifacts that the French had not revealed.

When Hutchinson claimed all materials as a property of the British Crown, a French scholar Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, said to Clarke and Hamilton that they'd rather burn all their discoveries, ominously referring to the burned Library of Alexandria. Hutchinson finally agreed that items like the biology specimens would be the scholars' private property. de Menou regarded the stone as his private property and hid it.

How exactly the Stone came to British hands is disputed. Colonel Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner, who escorted the stone to Britain, claimed later that he had personally seized the stone from de Menou and carried it away on a gun carriage. Clarke stated in his memoirs that a French scholar and an officer had quietly given up the stone to him and his companions in a Cairo back street. French scholars departed later with only imprints and plaster casts of the stone.


Experts inspecting the Rosetta Stone during the International Congress of Orientalists of 1874Turner brought the stone to Britain aboard a captured French frigate L'Egyptienne in February 1802. On March 11 it was presented to the Society of Antiquaries. Later it was taken to the British Museum, where it has been ever since. White painted inscriptions on the artifact stating "Captured in Egypt by the British Army in 1801" on the left side and "Presented by King George III" on the right.