AUC Press | Discovery at Rosetta: A Virtual Book Talk w/Jonathan Downs

The Rosetta Stone is arguably the most important Egyptian artefact ever discovered. It became the code-key to reading ancient hieroglyphics, the sacred script of the powerful priesthood – a skill lost for nearly 2000 years, and a puzzle that had defied scholars from Europe and the Middle East for centuries.

Author Jonathan Downs takes us through the extraordinary adventure of Napoleon Bonaparte’s mission to conquer Egypt, and how his hand-picked academic specialists awakened the world to the lost civilization of the pharaohs. From the invasion of Egypt and the stone’s unexpected discovery, through a tale of spies and lies, to final decipherment by Jean-François Champollion – this is the secret history of the Rosetta Stone: and the cracking of the hieroglyph code.