The Philae Obelisk by Anoop Sarkar

Introduction

The most famous artifact in the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyph writing is the Rosetta Stone. However another artifact, called the Philae obelisk (also called the Bankes obelisk) was also instrumental in the decipherment.

The Problem

William John Bankes acquired this obelisk after it was found at Philae in Upper Egypt in 1815. He noted two inscriptions on it, one in Egyptian hieroglyphs, the other in ancient Greek. By comparing the two texts, although they were not translations of one another, Bankes believed that the names CLEOPATRA and PTOLMEES (EE can be written as Y and so usually this name is written as Ptolemy in English) must appear in the hieroglyphic inscriptions.

Both Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion used this information in their attempts to decipher the script.

We will use inscriptions from the Philae obelisk and compare to inscriptions on the Rosetta stone to find a key to begin to understand Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The Questions

1. A cartouche is an oval with a horizontal line at one end, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. Pick which of the following cartouches refers to CLEOPATRA.
   
2. Find the Greek name written in the Egyptian hieroglyph script as:
   
   Hint: There is a famous city named after him in Egypt where Cleopatra was born, where she ruled and where she eventually died.
   
3. Who is the topic of discussion in this inscription from the Rosetta stone?
   
4. Champollion used the Greek translation in the Rosetta stone and his knowledge of Coptic to infer the sound values for part of the inscription: ?? ankh djet Ptah mer (in Coptic, ankh means life; djet means for ever; and mer means love). Use the Egyptian script to write the words Ptah and mer. Ptah is an Egyptian god.
5. Write down the translation into English of the Rosetta stone inscription above.