I just finished reading 1984 and realized that the Rosetta Stone may have been created to preserve known history.
It had never occurred to me that an entire language and it’s nuances are necessary to maintain historic integrity. We may have been able to decipher hieroglyphs without a translator, but could we do it with precision enough to learn anything truthful. Can we do that now is a thoughtful question as well i guess.
I’m certain this is not an original thought, and only want to talk about the book. I think i heard somewhere that the stone was created for trade purposes as well.
I guess hieroglyphics were to the priesthood of the time what Latin is to the Catholic church today. A dead language that you artificially keep alive in order to situate yourself in some sort of historical legacy.
Seems like it was pretty analogous, though it seems like there was a ritual value to hieroglyphics and the older forms of the language that’s a few steps beyond even what ecclesiastical Latin is today. I would say there would be a certain sense that something could only have top-tier religious import if it was set down in Medut Netjeru (“the Words of the Gods”). I thought this article by an Egyptologist was pretty interesting.