Sunday, August 2, 2015

Carpe Diem #788 Rosetta's Stone


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are on our way to discover the regions around The Nile. Yesterday we took off in the Nile delta with our papyrus boat with full sails to find the source of The Nile. We will have a great journey, an adventure, but to find our way over The Nile we will have to "learn" the language, the written language, of Ancient Egypt ... the Hieroglyphs will be needed to find our way. Therefore today I have a nice prompt for you all in which we will "learn" to understand the Hieroglyphs. Today we are using Rosetta's Stone to decode this wonderful written word of the Hieroglyphs.

Credits: Rosetta's Stone
mysterious script
piece by piece, image by image,
hidden beauty

© Chèvrefeuille

The Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek. Because it presents essentially the same text in all three scripts (with some minor differences among them), it provided the key to the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Although it is believed to have originally been displayed within a temple, possibly at nearby Sais, the stone was probably moved during the early Christian or medieval period and was eventually used as building material in the construction of Fort Julien near the town of Rashid (Rosetta) in the Nile Delta. It was rediscovered there in 1799 by a soldier, Pierre-François Bouchard, of the Napoleonic expedition to Egypt. As the first Ancient Egyptian bilingual text recovered in modern times, the Rosetta Stone aroused widespread public interest with its potential to decipher this previously untranslated ancient language. Lithographic copies and plaster casts began circulating among European museums and scholars. Meanwhile, British troops defeated the French in Egypt in 1801, and the original stone came into British possession under the Capitulation of Alexandria. Transported to London, it has been on public display at the British Museum almost continuously since 1802. It is the most-visited object in the British Museum. (Source: Wikipedia)

It has been an enormous task for scientists to find the decoding of the Hieroglyphs, because it's a very complex language, but it gave us more insight in the life of all day in ancient Egypt. I have "translated" my penname Chèvrefeuille into an ancient Egyptian cartouche at a wonderful website:

Chèvrefeuille in Hieroglyphs 
finally
painted language
no secrets


© Chèvrefeuille

Another haiku which I wrote inspired on this episode:

mysteries resolved
walking the path of Basho
nature becomes alive

© Chèvrefeuille (in Japanese: ハニーサックル )

Well .... we have decoded the hieroglyphs and now we can go on with our journey, our adventure, to find the source of The Nile.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 5th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, Lotus flowers, later on. For now .... have fun!

3 comments:

  1. You are in your element, Chèvrefeuille! I can see the enjoyment you ae having as you unfurl the sails........and your haiku have a very different flavourthis month, a touch mystical, literary. Very interesting.

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  2. I really enjoy your travel months, Chevrefeuille! And even though your second haiku says "no secrets" - it seems to have layers of meaning - and should be read several times to savor it fully. Great post :)

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  3. love your inspired haiku and your own hieroglyphic!

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