Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
When soldiers in Napoleon’s army came across a stone slab in the Egyptian city of Rashid (called Rosetta by the French), a race was launched to crack the code of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. The stone showed the same text in three languages: Greek and two forms of Egyptian. Once deciphered, the stone was revealed to be an official decree carved in 196 BCE to celebrate King Ptolemy V. The original stone is in the British Museum, and Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East has a copy. Chief curator Adam Aja and Collections Manager Jasmine Shevell created a more sturdy copy of the copy by making a fresh silicone mold, pouring resin into it, and painting the hardened resin to resemble the original. See their handiwork on the museum’s second floor.
When soldiers in Napoleon’s army came across a stone slab in the Egyptian city of Rashid (called Rosetta by the French), a race was launched to crack the code of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. The stone showed the same text in three languages: Greek and two forms of Egyptian. Once deciphered, the stone was revealed to be an official decree carved in 196 BCE to celebrate King Ptolemy V. The original stone is in the British Museum, and Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East has a copy. Chief curator Adam Aja and Collections Manager Jasmine Shevell created a more sturdy copy of the copy by making a fresh silicone mold, pouring resin into it, and painting the hardened resin to resemble the original. See their handiwork on the museum’s second floor.
