Ancient Egyptian cursive and the yet-untranslated hieroglyphics. Known as the Rosetta Stone, this trilingual slab presented an unmatched opportunity to unlock the stories of the Ancient Egyptians.

Champollion had extensive knowledge about Egypt and even understood the Coptic language, which had descended from ancient Egyptian. He found that the hieroglyphics contained Coptic sounds.

Back in the early 1920s, archaeologists came across an ancient Egyptian town called Deir el-Medina near the Nile River. Previous research has shown that the town was active from 1550 B.C. to 1070 ...