Give us back the Rosetta Stone – Corriere.it

From our correspondent
London – after Parthenon marbleit’s up to Rosetta Stone: More than 100,000 Egyptians have signed a petition calling on the British Museum to return the famous artifact to Egypt.Which allowed two hundred years ago to decipher the hieroglyphic writing of the ancient Egyptians.

initiative, as reported timesIt was launched by the former Minister of Antiquities of Cairo, the well-known archaeologist Zahi Hawass: “The time has come for the return of the Egyptian identity to the homeland – said the former minister -“. We are not asking the British Museum to return 100,000 Egyptian objects in their possession, we are only asking them to return one.».

Why is it so important

But it’s no small request: The Rosetta Stone is perhaps the Museum of London’s most famous find, and certainly the one that attracts the most visitors (To get close, you always have to make your way through a crowd of ‘fans’ bent on taking a selfie.) The request for compensation joins the dispute that the British authorities have already had with Greece over the Parthenon Marbles, which were taken from the temple on the Acropolis of Athens by Lord Elgin at the beginning of the 19th century.

What is this?

The Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799 by soldiers of Napoleon’s army who invaded Egypt

: The stone was found in the city of Rosetta to the French. But after the defeat of Napoleon, the British brought the stele to London in 1801, and since the next year it has been on permanent display in the British Museum. “The French found it and unjustly gave it as a gift to the British,” Hawass said. “This is theft in both French and English.”

Translation

The stele dates back to the second century BC, and owes its fame to the fact that It contains an inscription in three versions: hieroglyphic, demotic (a type of simplified Egyptian writing), and ancient Greek. Thanks for this kind of release You are a letteram With Google Translator, French archaeologist Jean-François Champollion was able, by comparing texts, to decipher the language of the ancient Egyptians, which had remained a mystery for thousands of years: The discovery paved the way for understanding the civilization of the pyramid builders. The stele is one of more than one hundred thousand Egyptian artifacts in the British Museum that were largely acquired during the British colonial rule of Egypt, which lasted from 1882 to 1956.

petition

If Hawass’ petition is successful, he hopes to display the Rosetta Stone in it The new Grand Egyptian Museum, which will open next year in Giza, near the Great Sphinx and the PyramidsWhich will be the largest museum in the world dedicated to the history and culture of the people of the Pharaohs.

Bust of Nefertiti

Hawass also announced that he intends to launch a similar petition to demand the Neuss Museum in Berlin to return the statue of Nefertiti: “I am not against the exhibition of Egyptian antiquities abroad – according to him -. I am against the colonial method still used by European and American museums, which is the purchase of stolen antiquities. We will pay respect to the British Museum if they return the stele; If they don’t, history will condemn them.