The Mystery of the Rosetta Stone

[Music] in august 1799 a warship sailed away from the coast of egypt on board with napoleon bonaparte with a small party of officers little more than a year earlier napoleon had invaded egypt with a powerful fleet and a large army napoleon had hoped to make egypt a french possession so that he could move on to attack the british in india but the british admiral nelson had destroyed his naval fleet and now defeated napoleon was leaving his army behind his military adventure turned out to be an absolute disaster it was a complete failure in every way every way but one you see while the french army was in egypt one of the soldiers made an incredible discovery he found an ancient stone inscription that unlocked the mysteries of a long-lost empire join me as we follow archaeologists and linguists as they decode this strange inscription and reveal the secrets of ancient egypt and together we'll listen to civilizations long dead speak with thunder tones to our generation and there may even be a message from the past for you and me [Music] this is the world's longest river the null flows around 6 700 kilometers from its source in equatorial africa to the mediterranean sea covering one-tenth of the earth circumference and passing through nine countries today as for thousands of years the central fact of life for the egyptian people is this river the nile without the nile there would be no egypt as we know it you see the land of egypt is 96 desert less than four percent of its total land area is productive all the rest is dry barren desert to the ancient egyptians this river was the source of life and civilization began along its banks great religions were born here even the bible story its first writer moses was plucked from the waters of the nile as an infant and reared by an egyptian princess this mighty river enters southern egypt and flows past the magnificent monuments of abu simbel the majestic temples of luxor the fabled valley of the kings with its 64 royal tombs and the enormous pyramids of giza finally it makes the grand sweep past the little town of rosetta also known as rashid and ends its journey at the mediterranean sea now it was here at rosetta near the mouth of the nile that one of archaeology's greatest discoveries was made in fact one of the greatest discoveries in all history here's how it happened napoleon bonaparte invaded egypt in 1798 accompanying his army was a team of 175 french scientists and artists they were there to map the land and study the mysterious monuments of egypt strange hieroglyphic picture writing on the temple walls and monuments looked down on napoleon's men this fascinating picture writing can be seen today etched everywhere on the huge columns and blocks of stone yet not a person in egypt or in all the world for that matter could read these strange inscriptions in fact for 15 centuries the knowledge of this writing was lost to civilization men had gazed fascinated upon egyptian hieroglyphs without understanding their meaning the ancient egyptians were a mystery because no one could read their hieroglyphic writing but in 1799 one of napoleon's officers was supervising the restoration of fort rosetta on the banks of the nile delta as he was digging a trench he came upon an unusual stone just over a metre high three quarters of a meter wide and weighing 762 kilos with inscriptions engraved on it he immediately realized that he had discovered something special and that it was important to the scientists accompanying the french army in egypt and he certainly was right the discovery of this slab of black basalt now known as the rosetta stone marked the beginning of modern archaeology it was the key which unlocked the puzzle of ancient egyptian writing in fact the rosetta stone is probably the most important archaeological artifact in the world today [Music] after the defeat of napoleon and the french surrender of egypt in 1801 the rosetta stone was brought to london as a prize of war and taken to the british museum the rosetta stone was part of a decree issued by the new king tommy v king of all egypt in 196 bc the text contains a decree establishing a cult in the temples in his honor what it said is of little importance the important thing is that its message was inscribed in three languages yes the same message was repeated three times in three different languages at the top of the stone are 14 lines of hieroglyphs then in the middle 32 lines of a sort of egyptian handwriting demotic and finally at the bottom 54 lines of greek the three forms of writing repeated the same message since the greek was easily understood it was just a matter of matching up the greek against the hieroglyphs now this may not seem a difficult task but try as they would no one could make progress in reading the ancient egyptian hieroglyphs the rosetta stone sat in the british museum for decades no one could decipher it no one could crack the hieroglyphic code no one that is except a brilliant young french linguist jean-francois champollion he was just nine years old when the rosetta stone was first discovered but by then he was already an accomplished linguist and was fluent in greek latin and hebrew by his mid-teens champollion had mastered a further six ancient oriental languages then he turned his attention to the rosetta stone and devoted all his energy to cracking the hieroglyphic code it became his passion he was determined to read and understand it he worked from the known to the unknown from the greek which he knew and understood to the demotic and through the hieroglyphs suddenly after years of exhausting and detailed study champolio saw the true explanation of the strange picture writing in the autumn of 1822 until then he had thought hieroglyphs had some sort of symbolic meaning used as letters only to write foreign names but now he recognized that the signs were used for sounds as well as words the key lay in the cartouches or oblong circles of egyptian hieroglyphs representing the names of the kings found throughout the rosetta stone within days he successfully made sense of many king's names it was quite clear he had deciphered the hieroglyphs correctly and he announced his discovery in paris on the 17th of september 1822 he'd done it finally champollion had cracked the hieroglyphic code perhaps the greatest code in history the ancient mystery of hieroglyphs had been solved until the discovery of the rosetta stone and the work of champolio no one had been able to read the ancient hieroglyphic writing which could be seen everywhere on the walls of the tombs and temples of ancient egypt we knew nothing of the ancient egyptians but now the ability to read the ancient egyptian language as it was written in the days of the ancient pharaohs unlocked the vast treasures of a forgotten civilization the door to the past was now open and as archaeologists and linguists began to read the hieroglyphs on the tombs temples and monuments of ancient egypt and as they studied the ancient inscriptions to their amazement they found that they correlated with the bible record and shed light on the bible narrative in fact they found things exactly as the bible says they were for example at the giza plateau near the great pyramids the mysterious sphinx is found crouching in the sand the sphinx is considered to be the greatest statue on earth it was carved out of one piece of solid limestone bedrock between the pores of the sphinx is an impressive stone monument its hieroglyph text tells of the day the sphinx supposedly spoke the inscription records how tutmos iv unexpectedly became pharaoh one day when he was on a hunting expedition he stopped to rest in the shade of the sphinx as he did so he claimed the sphinx spoke to him and told him he would become the pharaoh of egypt when this came true he cleared the sand away that was covering the sphinx and put this memorial between its paws that's still here today it's an obvious attempt to legitimize his claim to the royal throne it's quite evident that tutmos iv never expected to become king his father was on the throne and his older brother was the crown prince next in line for the throne however both his older brother and his father disappeared from the scene of action about the same time what could possibly have happened to the king and the rightful heir the crown prince well this inscription was placed here about the time the descendants of abraham the israelites left egypt at the time of the biblical exodus you'll remember that ten dreadful plagues fell upon egypt the last of these plagues destroyed the firstborn child of every egyptian family including the firstborn son of pharaoh this is how the bible describes it in exodus chapter 12 verses 29 and 30. at midnight the lord struck down all the firstborn of egypt from the firstborn of pharaoh who sat on the throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon pharaoh and all his officials and all the egyptians got up during the night and there was loud wailing in egypt for there was not a house without someone dead and so it seems that tutmos iv came to the throne unexpectedly when his older brother the crown prince was slain in the tenth play and his father the ruling pharaoh drowned in the red sea as he chased the israelites it's amazing how the hieroglyphic inscriptions and the discoveries of modern archaeology confirm the ancient bible story that's true of many sites in egypt about 200 kilometers south of giza at benihassen there are 39 rock tombs that are cut into the limestone cliff these tombs belong to nobles who ruled this egyptian province about 4 000 years ago each tomb is cut out of solid rock the walls of these tombs are covered with magnificent paintings and hieroglyphic inscriptions of special interest is the beautiful tomb of noom hotep he was the province's most important official the governor of the eastern desert a painting in his tomb shows a group of semites from canaan arriving in egypt it shows the clothes they wore the kind of footwear they had and the musical instruments they played these tombs date back to the days of abraham isaac and jacob it was common for people from canaan to visit egypt to barter for corn in times of famine just as the bible says the israelites did in the time of jacob here's what the bible says in genesis chapter 42 verses 1 to 3. when jacob saw that there was grain in egypt jacob said to his sons indeed i have heard that there is grain in egypt go down to that place and buy for us there that we may live and not die so joseph's ten brothers went down to buy grain in egypt this painting is one of many that clearly shows that life in ancient egypt was very much as indicated in the bible yes as archaeologists study the hieroglyphs and uncover the past here in egypt they are discovering monuments inscriptions people and places that demonstrate the accuracy and reliability of the bible [Music] further south along the nile at ancient thebes now modern luxor a double row avenue of ram-headed sinks leads to the great temple of karnak this is the largest temple complex ever built to enter we pass through a gateway that's 43 metres high and then beyond the first court we enter the famous hyper style hall one of the most spectacular sights in all of egypt a sandstone forest of 134 gigantic columns the pillars are 10 meters in circumference with architraves weighing 70 tons each nearby archaeologists found a fascinating victory relief carved deep into the temple walls it tells how pharaoh shishak led a devastating military campaign against israel after the death of the israelite king solomon the inscription records shishak's victory over rehoboam the son of solomon and tells how he captured over 100 towns in israel including the capital jerusalem each conquered city is represented by the figure of a hebrew on whose body is inscribed the city's name the details of the campaign are also recorded in the bible here's what it says in first kings chapter 14 verses 25 and 26 in the fifth year of rehab king of egypt attacked jerusalem he carried off the treasures of the temple of the lord and the treasures of the royal palace he took everything including all the gold shields solomon had made it wasn't all that long ago that skeptics were saying there is no such person as shishak the bible is wrong they said but you know one champollion cracked the hieroglyphic code these inscriptions on temple walls and tombs have proved the critics wrong and the bible right it seems that the more archaeologists work the more evidence they discover to confirm bible history perhaps one of the most amazing examples of this is found right here in karnak temple and surrounds the story of the ancient hittites now the problem with the ancient hittites might well be called the riddle of the ages because you see 48 times the bible mentions the hittite race its dealings with abraham with solomon with david with egypt these bible references picture the hittites as one of the most powerful of ancient empires yet in all the records of antiquity aside from the bible not a trace of them not a word remained only the bible mentioned the hittites so scholarly critics of the bible said that it would be impossible for such an empire to disappear from history without leaving a single trace behind therefore a lack of evidence was interpreted as evidence that the hittites never existed and were nothing more than an ancient legend a bible myth people said the bible was wrong then came the rosetta stone the egyptian inscriptions were deciphered the hieroglyphic reliefs and inscriptions could be read and the great pillars pylons and monuments of karnak temple told their story and here on these massive walls to everyone's utter amazement pharaoh ramesses ii describes how he went to war with the king of the hittites in one of the great decisive battles of history a battle in which the power of egypt was tested to the limit in fact the battle was so important and the hittites so powerful that ramses carved the story about them on all the major temples of egypt from these inscriptions and other archaeological discoveries we now know that the hittites were indeed a mighty empire one of the most powerful in the ancient world they were based in present-day turkey and their rule stretched from the black sea to damascus the hieroglyphic inscriptions here at karnak show that the hittites of bible fame were no myth after all and the bible is vindicated again this has happened at one ancient site after another here in egypt across the nile on the west bank we are met by the colossi of memnon this impressive pair of statues formed the entrance to a huge mortuary temple belonging to pharaoh amenhotep iii they are all that remain of the fabulous temple built from white sandstone with gold throughout and floor and doors covered with silver even in their ruined state the colossi are impressive just behind the colossi pharaoh menepta the thirteenth son of ramesses ii built his mortuary temple and it was here in 1896 that the famous archaeologist sir flinders petrie made an amazing discovery he found a black stone slab just over two meters high engraved with a description of pharaoh monepta's military victories in canaan in 1207 bc it's now known as the moneta stellar to everyone's amazement it contained the name of israel it's the earliest reference to israel outside of the bible and the only mention of israel in the egyptian records people were surprised because skeptics said that the children of israel did not enter canaan at the time indicated in the bible they said the israelites only appeared in canaan hundreds of years later but the discovery of the monepta stella over 3200 years old and now in the cairo museum shows that the bible was right again it shows that the message of the hieroglyphic inscriptions and the evidence that archaeologists are uncovering is entirely consistent with the bible description of israel's origins we find this pattern continues at the most beautiful temple in all of egypt rising out of the desert plain on the west bank of the nile at luxor is the mortuary temple of queen hat shepsut ancient egypt produced a number of remarkable women but hatshepsut was the greatest of them all she was the first woman to become pharaoh and wear the double crown of egypt but the amazing thing is that virtually all of her statues have been smashed and her engravings and inscriptions have been defaced and vandalized we know for a fact today that this was done by the pharaoh who followed her tutmos iii for some reason he hated hatshepsut so much that he wanted her name and memory obliterated from the face of the earth he wanted her erased from history but why well the bible throws some light on this mystery you see it appears that it was had shepset who rescued the hebrew baby moses from the nile and adopted him as her son and so moses the prince who led the israelites out of egypt would have been familiar with this temple and had shepherd planned to put her adopted son moses on the throne of egypt instead of tutmos and tutmos hated her for that and never forgave her but listen to what the bible says happened in hebrews chapter 11 verse 24 moses when he had grown up refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter it appears that moses was groomed to be pharaoh he could have possessed all the treasure of egypt but he chose rather to be numbered with his blood brothers the israelites he turned down the throne of egypt and so tutmos the third seized control in a fit of revenge he embarked on a campaign to wipe away his shepherd's memory he chiseled out her inscriptions and tore down her statues it all fits together with the bible record as archaeologists and linguists read the hieroglyphs on the temples tombs and monuments of ancient egypt they bring a message from the past to our generation and to you and me it's a message that echoes across the centuries stating loud and clear you can trust the bible that when you read the bible you are not dealing with myths and legends rather you are dealing with reliable history in real people wouldn't it be a tragedy to spend your life doubting and questioning the bible the word of god when you could have had it to depend on all along you could have had it to stand on when every other prop was swept away the bible really is the right book for right now if you'd like to know more about the bible and the inner peace and happiness it brings then i'd like to recommend the free gift we have for all our incredible journey viewers today it's the popular bible reading guide we can believe the bible this small easy to read bible guide is our gift to you and is absolutely free and there's more when you request we can believe the bible we will also include our new booklet secrets of the rosetta stone so make sure you take this opportunity to receive the double gift pack we have for you today phone or text us at 0436 triple three triple five in australia or 020 402 2042 in new zealand or visit our website tij.tv to request today's free offer and we'll send it to you totally free of charge and with no obligation write to us at gpo box 274 sydney new south wales 2001 australia or p.o box 70673 manukau auckland 2241 new zealand don't delay call or text us now be sure to join us again next week when we will share another of life's journeys together until then let's pray for a trusting spirit so that we can put our confidence in the bible and its message of hope and inner peace let's pray dear heavenly father we are grateful for the bible and the evidence of its reliability and trustworthiness please grant us the genuine peace and happiness that its message brings we thank you in jesus name amen [Music]

Channel: The Incredible Journey

Views: 154,326

Keywords: rosetta stone, ancient egypt, rosetta stone discovery, napoleon bonaparte, egypt, Bouchard, Boussard, August 1799, Fort Saint-Julien, British Museum in London, Jean-François Champollion, hieroglyphs, Egyptian demotic, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Greek, Archeology, archeology documentary, egyptology, pyramids of egypt, wonders of the world, wonders of egypt, ancient egypt mysteries, ancient egyptian, ancient egypt pyramids, ancient egypt history, ancient egypt gods, gary kent

Id: TlwgwrgU4dI

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 11 2021