Rosetta stone row as Egypt demands Britain returns famous ‘symbol of cultural violence’

The world-famous cipher has been a must-see object for two centuries – but Egypt wants it back.

By Ciaran McGrath

16:07, Wed, Oct 5, 2022 | UPDATED: 16:07, Wed, Oct 5, 2022

Rosetta Stone: How its discovery uncovered mystery of Egypt

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Egyptian archaeologists are demanding the return of the world-famous Rosetta Stone from the British Museum, stoking yet another row over the UK’s sizeable inventory of historical artefacts. And one campaigner has accused Britain of “cultural imperialism” – suggesting it is “only a matter of when” the museum handed the unique object back.

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The move comes 200 years after the deciphering of the slab unlocked the secrets of hieroglyphic script, marking marking the birth of Egyptology.

An online campaign by Egyptian archaeologists has gathered 2,500 signatures so far and aims to “tell Egyptians what has been taken from them”, explained Monica Hanna, acting Dean of the College of Archaeology in the Egyptian city of Aswan.

The Rosetta Stone dates to 196 BC and was first unearthed by Napoleon’s army in northern Egypt in 1799.

Rosetta Stone is currently housed at the British Museum (Image: GETTY)

Along with other antiquities found by the French, the stone was seized by the UK under the terms of the 1801 Treaty of Alexandria, which marked the defeat of Napoleon by British and Ottoman forces. It was shipped to Britain and has been housed in the British Museum since 1802.

Bearing inscriptions of the same text in Hieroglyphs, Demotic and Ancient Greek, Frenchman Jean-Francois Champollion used it to decipher Hieroglyphs from 1822, hugely opening up understanding of ancient Egyptian language and culture.

Egyptian archaeologists have called for its return before, but are hoping that increasing moves by Western museums to return artefacts removed from countries under colonial rule will strengthen their case.