Archaeology - Rosetta Stone

Before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, Ancient Egyptian (both hieroglyphic and demotic) writing was a mystery to historians.  The stone was carved in 196 BC, but was torn down and used as a building block for years until its discovery by French soldiers in 1799.  Over the next hundred years, many different people worked to decode the writing on the Rosetta Stone.  Jean-François Champollion is credited with finally discovering the connection between Coptic and the ancient writings, thereby making Egyptian writing understandable to modern scholars.

In class activities:

• Watched portions of Ancient Mysteries of the Rosetta Stone
• Discussed how not all archaeological discoveries are made by archaeologists
• Reviewed the difference between pictographs and phonetic writing
• Learned about the importance of ancient writings to understanding history
• Excavated multiple layers in our dig site
• Compared our discoveries to existing documents to try to decode the meaning of a tablet we discovered
• Documented results

Optional lesson extension activities:

• Finish watching Ancient Mysteries of the Rosetta Stone
• Type up several phrases in a simple hieroglyph translator, and see if you can come up with a complete alphabet (without typing the alphabet letter for letter).  Notice how several sounds are represented by one symbol, and several symbols can be used for a single sound.  How would this impact translation attempts?
• Make a list of all the archaeological tools and systems you have learned.  Try to write an instruction manual for future students.  

Assignment:

• We will be working on artifact restoration next week.  If anyone has a hot glue gun, please bring it with you!