# The Rosetta Stone > The priestly synod of Memphis (individual scribes and stonecutters unrecorded) - 196 BC > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/memphis-priestly-synod/rosetta-stone/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-12 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** The priestly synod of Memphis (individual scribes and stonecutters unrecorded) - **Date:** 196 BC - **Medium:** Incised granodiorite stele (formerly, and for most of two centuries wrongly, catalogued as black basalt) - **Dimensions:** 1123 x 757 x 284 mm; approx. 760 kg. The complete stele is estimated to have stood about 149 cm tall; roughly the top third and part of the lower right corner are missing. - **Object type:** Antiquity - **Period:** Ptolemaic Egypt, reign of Ptolemy V Epiphanes - **Current location:** The British Museum, London, Room 4 (Egyptian Sculpture Gallery), in a specially built case since 2004 - **Attribution:** accepted ## Summary A broken granodiorite slab carved in 196 BC with a routine priestly tax-and-cult decree, in three scripts, for a 13-year-old Macedonian king who needed the Egyptian priesthood's endorsement more than the priesthood needed his money. It spent most of its life built into a fortress wall as ordinary building stone before French soldiers found it in 1799 and British forces took it in 1801, under Article 16 of the Capitulation of Alexandria, over the object's claim by the French commander Menou that it was his personal property.It has been in the British Museum, on almost continuous public display, since June 1802, and it gave Thomas Young and Jean-Francois Champollion the key to hieroglyphs by 1822. It is not, contrary to the popular idea, a unique text: at least a few other fragmentary copies of the same decree survive, one of them already in Cairo.Egypt has asked for it back, formally and repeatedly, since at least 2003, through Zahi Hawass's public campaigns, a 2005 request to UNESCO, petitions, and a parliamentary route pursued from 2023. The British Museum's position has not moved: no formal government request received, and no legal mechanism under the British Museum Act 1963 to give it up even if one were. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **196 BC** The temple(s) of Ptolemaic Egypt, per the decree's own instruction that a copy be erected in every temple `[documented]` (origin) Decree of the Memphis priestly synod, issued 27 March 196 BC (Year 9 of Ptolemy V Epiphanes). This specific stele's original temple of display is not identified in any source consulted; a temple at Sais is the leading unconfirmed candidate. - **196 BC-15th century AD** Unknown `[unknown]` (gap) No owner, custodian or location is documented for roughly sixteen centuries between the decree's promulgation and the stone's reuse as building material in a Mamluk-era fortification. How and when it was broken and removed from temple use is not recorded. - **15th century AD (reign of Sultan Qaitbay, 1468-1496)-July 1799** Reused as building stone (spolia) in the walls of Fort Julien (Fort Rashid), near Rosetta `[documented]` (reuse) The stone, already broken, was built into the fortification's walls alongside other spoliated ancient masonry, functioning as structural material rather than a legible monument. - **July 1799-September 1801** The French Republic, via the army of Napoleon's Egypt expedition and the Institut d'Egypte `[documented]` (discovery) Uncovered mid-July 1799 during French military engineering work at Fort Julien. Lieutenant Pierre-Francois Bouchard identified its significance; it was sent to Cairo and examined by scholars of the Institut d'Egypte, whose report was delivered by Michel-Ange Lancret. - **September 1801** Transferred from French to British possession `[documented]` (capitulation) Under Article 16 of the Capitulation of Alexandria (concluded 30 August to 2 September 1801, between General Menou for France and General Hutchinson for Britain, with Admiral Lord Keith and Lt-Col Kempt, and an Ottoman representative present), the antiquities and collections assembled by the French scientific commission were declared public property subject to disposal by the allied generals, overriding Menou's specific claim that the stone was his personal property. The precise physical circumstances of the handover in Alexandria (Clarke's account of a warehouse surrender versus Turner's account of a personal seizure) are disputed between the two British participants' own later accounts. - **September 1801-February 1802** British Crown, in transit `[documented]` (transport) Escorted by Colonel Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner aboard the captured French frigate HMS Egyptienne, landing at Portsmouth in February 1802. - **February 1802-June 1802** British Crown / Society of Antiquaries examination `[documented]` (examination) Examined by the Society of Antiquaries on 11 March 1802. King George III directed its placement in the British Museum. - **June 1802-present** The British Museum, London (trustees, under the British Museum Act 1963) `[documented]` (acquisition and continuous display) On public display almost continuously since June 1802. Exceptions: moved underground to a Postal Tube Railway station near Holborn, 1917-1919, for wartime protection; loaned to the Louvre, Paris, for one month in October 1972, the only peacetime departure on record. Registered under accession number EA 24. Since 2004, displayed in a purpose-built case in Room 4, the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery. - **2003-present** Held by the British Museum; ownership and legal title publicly and repeatedly disputed by Egyptian campaigners `[documented]` (standing repatriation claim) A continuing, unresolved public dispute, not a change of custody. Zahi Hawass's campaigns (2003, 2005 UNESCO submission, 2009 loan request and refusal, 2019 committee, 2022 petitions, 2023 UK parliamentary petition route, and renewed calls following the Grand Egyptian Museum's opening on 1 November 2025) have not produced a loan, a restitution, or any documented change in the British Museum's position that it holds clear legal title and has received no formal government-to-government request. ## Open questions - Which temple first displayed the stele, and when it left that temple, is not documented. A temple at Sais is the leading candidate on geographic and stylistic grounds but is not confirmed by any source consulted for this record. - The exact physical mechanics of the September 1801 transfer in Alexandria are disputed: Clarke's account of a French officer surrendering the stone from Menou's baggage conflicts with Turner's later claim to have personally seized it and hauled it away on a gun-carriage. - The missing top portion of the hieroglyphic register and the missing piece of the lower right corner have never been located. - Whether the British Museum has ever produced an internal record evaluating a formal loan or restitution proposal beyond its 2009 security-conditions letter to Hawass has not been found in the sources consulted for this record. - Whether the government of Egypt, as distinct from Zahi Hawass acting in a public campaigning capacity, has ever lodged a formal state-to-state repatriation request is disputed by the two sides' own public statements: the British Museum says none has been received; no countervailing Egyptian government document has been located in the sources consulted here. - No insurance valuation, declared value or comparable figure for the stone has been published in any source consulted for this record. ## Sources - [1] Wikipedia, 'Rosetta Stone' - consolidating physical description, discovery, transfer, decipherment and display history. Flagged for replacement with the British Museum's own object record and published conservation reports. - [2] British Museum (blog), 'The Rosetta Stone: everything you need to know'. - [3] Andrew Dalby, 'Rosetta Stone', WikiJournal of Humanities, 2(1), 20 February 2019, doi:10.15347/WJH/2019.001 - peer-reviewed academic article, used for the Fort Julien spolia findspot, the Menou/Clarke/Turner accounts, and the WWI and 1972 display history. - [4] Wikipedia, 'Capitulation of Alexandria' - Article 16 text, officers and dates of the 1801 surrender. - [5] Wikipedia, 'Rosetta Stone decree' - the Memphis synod, the Great Theban Revolt context, the decree's translated content, and the trilingual purpose. - [6] Wikipedia, 'Nubayrah Stele' - findspot, current location and confirmation it carries the same decree text. - [7] thearchaeologist.org, 'Egyptian Archaeologist Zahi Hawass requests Rosetta Stone return from British Museum', October 2022. - [8] El-Shai, 'Zahi Hawass Leads A Petition To Return 2 Famed Ancient Egyptian Artifacts, The Rosetta Stone And The Dendera Zodiac, to Egypt', 20 October 2022. - [9] Heritage Key (Sean Williams), "'We are not Pirates!' Zahi Hawass Anger at British Museum Rosetta Stone Loan Letter", 9 December 2009. - [10] Returning Heritage, 'Rosetta Stone: no priority for restitution' - British Museum Act 1963 barriers, lack of formal government request, and museum-community joint statement context. - [11] Returning Heritage, 'Why the Rosetta Stone will not be returning to Egypt ... just yet', 11 November 2025 - the November 2025 Grand Egyptian Museum opening, Hawass's renewed campaign, and the British Museum's response including the three-copies-of-the-decree argument and the 1 billion pound redevelopment context. - [12] designboom, 'renowned archaeologist zahi hawass demands rosetta stone's return to egypt', 24 August 2022 - including the 2007 and 2019 loan-request history and their refusal. - [13] Zahi Hawass, 'Repatriation' (personal website). - [14] Egypt Independent, 'How do we return the Rosetta Stone to Egypt?', 15 August 2023 - the UK parliamentary petition route, Jihan al-Husseini and Laila Takla. - [15] Return The Stone campaign, 'The History of the Rosetta Stone'. - [16] Nevine El-Aref, 'Antiquities wish list', Al-Ahram Weekly, 14-20 July 2005 (archived) - contemporary report of Hawass's 2005 UNESCO submission naming the Rosetta Stone. - [17] GB News, "Rosetta Stone: Egypt issues fresh call for Britain to hand back the 'illegally taken' relic" - Mohamed Ismail Khaled's statement for Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. Flagged: full article text could not be directly fetched (paywall/402 response); the quotation used is drawn from an aggregated search excerpt of this article and should be re-verified against the original before further reuse. - [18] Wikipedia, 'Jean-Francois Champollion' - the 14 September 1822 breakthrough and the 'Je tiens mon affaire!' account. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.