The Rosetta Stone is one of the most famous artifacts from ancient Egypt, dating back to 196 BCE during the reign of King Ptolemy V. It was discovered in 1799 by French soldiers during Napoleon's campaign in Egypt and later became the property of the British after the defeat of Napoleon's forces.

The stone is a large slab of black basalt inscribed with a decree issued in three scripts: Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic script (a later form of Egyptian script used for everyday purposes), and Ancient Greek. This trilingual inscription played a crucial role in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs, as it provided scholars with the means to compare the hieroglyphic text with the known Greek text, which they could understand. The breakthrough in deciphering hieroglyphs is credited to the efforts of scholars like Jean-François Champollion, who used the Rosetta Stone as a key to unlock the mysteries of ancient Egyptian writing.