Rosetta Stone

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/rosetta-stone

1. Who discovered Rosetta Stone?
2. What is the material?
3. What is the date carved?
4. Why does the Rosetta Stone have three different scripts?
5. How did scientists figure out the ancient Egyptian language from the Rosetta Stone?

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. Who discovered Rosetta Stone?1799
2. What is the material?Granodiorite
3. What is the date carved?196 BCE
4. Why does the Rosetta Stone have three different scripts?The stone has hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Greek. This way the priests, the common people, and the Greek rulers could all read the message.
5. How did scientists figure out the ancient Egyptian language from the Rosetta Stone?Scholars compared the Greek part with the other two scripts. They found that the same names appeared in both, showing that the hieroglyphs had letters and pictures.

Stele: An upright stone slab or pillar, often bearing inscriptions or relief carvings.
Ptolemaic Dynasty: A ruling family of Macedonian Greek origin that governed Egypt for nearly 300 years.
Cartouche: An oval frame enclosing a royal name in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Coptic: The final stage of the ancient Egyptian language, written using the Greek alphabet with some additional letters.