Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone was a heavy, large, dark monolithic stone about the height of the First Doctor. (AUDIO: The Library of Alexandria) Although initially an unimportant document, it later became of great importance due to the message being repeated both in Greek and in Egyptian hieroglyphs, allowing the translation of the latter.

Content
At the top of the stone was an illustration of a man stood with the Ancient Egyptian gods. Below that was praise for a newly crowned king, with the same praise given in three different languages, (AUDIO: The Library of Alexandria) two of which were Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphs. (PROSE: Love and War)

History
As written on the stone, it was first erected in Sais, though by the early 5th century it was located in the Sculpture Garden at the Library of Alexandria. During his stay in Alexandria, the First Doctor implanted the idea of the stone being taken to Rosetta in the minds of children taught by Hypatia. (AUDIO: The Library of Alexandria)

As recalled by Bernice Summerfield, while investigating an Egyptian tomb in 1798, the Rosetta stone was found by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799 (PROSE: Set Piece) in Rosetta. (AUDIO: The Library of Alexandria) Later, the British discovered that one of Napoleon's generals had been using it as a coffee table. (AUDIO: Pride of the Lampian)

The hieroglyphs on the stone were translated in the 19th century by Champollion, allowing his successors to, as the Doctor put it, "unlock the world of the ancients". (AUDIO: The Library of Alexandria)

In the 1970s, the Third Doctor told the Brigadier that he had deciphered the Rosetta Stone. (AUDIO: The Rings of Ikiria)

In 2007, the Rosetta Stone was on display in the Egyptian gallery of the British Museum. The Tenth Doctor, while examining it, claimed that at the time that Napoleon's soldiers found it, he was about to publish his own English-hieroglyphic dictionary. (PROSE: The Stone Rose)

Behind the scenes

 * In the real world, the top of the stone is missing, so the illustrations at the top described in The Library of Alexandria are merely based on speculation about what the stone may have looked like in its completed form.