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About How Did We Really Crack The Rosetta Stone?

How did we really decipher the Ancient Egyptian language? Was the discovery of the Rosetta Stone crucial to cracking hieroglyphs? And who was the first person to decode it? Join Tristan Hughes as he explores a new exhibition at the British Museum - Hieroglyphs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt. 2022 isn't just 100 years since the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. It's also exactly 200 years since one of history's greatest linguistic puzzles was cracked: when Jean-Francois Champollion made the ultimate breakthrough and deciphered the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic code. To mark this very special anniversary, the British Museum has opened a new exhibition that guides visitors through the story of how hieroglyphs were deciphered. In this special access film, Tristan Hughes is given fascinating insight into the key exhibits by the exhibition’s expert curator, Dr Ilona Regulski. At the heart of the exhibition sits the Rosetta Stone, one of the most famous artefacts in the World. Ilona explains what the Stone actually is and why its discovery was so important in kickstarting the great race to decipher hieroglyphs in the early 19th century.

How Did We Really Crack The Rosetta Stone? is presented by History Hit. Its listed runtime is 20 minutes. The source link and publisher attribution are provided with the embedded film.

As a society documentary, How Did We Really Crack The Rosetta Stone? uses really, crack, rosetta as its central frame. Social documentaries work best as invitations to examine systems through lived experience. Distinguish individual testimony from wider claims, and consider which institutions, incentives and inequalities shape the choices shown.

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Film information

Documentary details and original source

Title
How Did We Really Crack The Rosetta Stone?
Category
Society
Runtime
20 minutes
Language
English
Publisher
History Hit

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