How did people manage to decipher/translate writings from long lost age? For example, text from Mesopotamian era or Ancient Egypt.

Question

How did people manage to decipher/translate writings from long lost age? For example, text from Mesopotamian era or Ancient Egypt.

In: 8

Answer 1

For Egypt, scholars used the [Rosetta Stone.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone)

>The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic and Demotic scripts respectively, while the bottom is in Ancient Greek. The decree has only minor differences between the three versions, making the Rosetta Stone key to deciphering the Egyptian scripts.