There remain many writings of ancient peoples whose language has disappeared from the earth. The best known example is Egyptian Hieroglyphics, the written language of thousands of years of Egyptian culture. These remained a mystery for nearly two thousand years until a tablet known as the Rosetta Stone was discovered by Napoleon's soldiers while making excavations necessary to build a fort.
It was quickly recognized by Champollion, the leading Egyptologist at the time, that the Rosetta stone had the same passage written in hieroglyphics, Demotic, and ancient Greek. The last two being known languages, Champollion could prove his idea that the hieroglyphics were a phonetic alphabet for a language closely related to modern day Coptic.
The Rosetta Stone was the key to the decipherment of hieroglyphics.
