Egypt demands London to return the Rosetta Stone 200 years after its decipherment

A group of renowned Egyptian archaeologists demanded that the United Kingdom return the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum to Egypt, 200 years after its decipherment revealed the secrets of hieroglyphic writing, marking the birth of Egyptology.

The archaeologists’ petition has so far gathered 2,500 signatures, and its goal is to “explain to the Egyptians what has been taken from them”, said Monica Hanna, internal dean of the Archeology faculty of the Egyptian city of Aswan.

The Rosetta Stone dates back to 196 BC and was unearthed by Napoleon’s army in northern Egypt in 1799. It became British property after Bonaparte’s defeat, under the 1801 Treaty of Alexandria, along with other antiquities found by the French.

The stone was sent to Great Britain and It has been in the British Museum since 1802.

With inscriptions in hieroglyphics, demotic and ancient Greek, it was used by the Frenchman Jean-Francois Champollion to decipher hieroglyphs since 1822, which allowed the understanding of the ancient Egyptian language and culture.

“I’m sure all of these objects are going to be returned because the museum code of ethics is changing, it’s just a question of when,” Hanna said.

“The stone is a symbol of cultural violence, and cultural imperialism”, he added. “For this reason, relocating the stone is a symbol of change, that we are no longer in the 19th century, but that we work with a 21st century code of ethics.”

For its part, a British Museum spokesman said there had been no no formal request from the Egyptian government for the return of the stone of the Rosetta Stone.

In an emailed statement, the spokesman said that 28 stelae engraved with the same code written by Egyptian priests have been discovered, starting with the Rosetta Stone in 1799, and that 21 remain in Egypt.

The museum will open an exhibition entitled “Hieroglyphics: Discovering Ancient Egypt” on October 13, which sheds light on the role of the Rosetta Stone.

“The British Museum highly values ​​collaborations with its colleagues across Egypt,” the statement added.

Egypt claims that the return of the artifacts helps boost its tourism sector, a crucial source of dollars for its economy.

It is planned to open a new large museum near the pyramids of Giza to showcase its most famous Egyptian collections in the coming months.

“Egyptian antiquities are one of the most important tourism assets Egypt possesses, setting it apart from tourist destinations around the world,” Tourism Minister Ahmed Issa said last week at an event to mark the 200th anniversary of Egypt. Egyptology.