---
title: "Scribes and the Rosetta Stone"
description: "Know that scribes were specially trained people who could read and write hieroglyphs, that the Rosetta Stone — a slab with the same text in three scripts — was the key to cracking the hieroglyphic cod"
canonical: https://lightmysky.com/learn/history/scribes-and-the-rosetta-stone-mt_V_kAitNbLN
source: https://lightmysky.com/learn/history/scribes-and-the-rosetta-stone-mt_V_kAitNbLN.md
retrieved: 2026-10-19
---

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# Scribes and the Rosetta Stone

Know that scribes were specially trained people who could read and write hieroglyphs, that the Rosetta Stone — a slab with the same text in three scripts — was the key to cracking the hieroglyphic code, and that Jean-François Champollion used it to decipher hieroglyphs in 1822 after centuries of mystery

Subject: History · Area: Ancient Egypt · Ages 7 to 9
Page: https://lightmysky.com/learn/history/scribes-and-the-rosetta-stone-mt_V_kAitNbLN

## Ready when they can

- Explain the importance of scribes as the only people who could read and write
- Describe the Rosetta Stone as having the same message in three different scripts
- Name Champollion as the person who decoded hieroglyphs using the Rosetta Stone

## Lesson: Scribes and the Rosetta Stone

You already know that Egyptians wrote in hieroglyphs, pictures and symbols carved on walls and written on papyrus. But almost no one back then could read or write. The people who trained for years to learn every sign were called scribes. Scribes were some of the only people in all of Egypt who could read a message or write one down.

Here is the strange part. Long after ancient Egypt ended, the last scribes died, and their skill died with them. Nobody remembered how to read hieroglyphs anymore. For centuries, all those pictures on temple walls stayed a locked mystery, like a code with no key.

*(drawing: The Rosetta Stone carved the very same message three times: once in hieroglyphs, once in demotic, and once in Greek.)*

**Example.** A scholar named Jean-François Champollion could already read Greek. In 1822, he compared the Greek words on the stone to the hieroglyphs next to them. Matching the two, sign by sign, he finally cracked the code and could read hieroglyphs again.

**Tip.** When you are stuck on something new, look for a part you already understand right next to it. Comparing a known clue with an unknown one is exactly how Champollion solved a puzzle that had stumped everyone else for centuries.

**Recap.** The Rosetta Stone repeated one message in three scripts, and comparing the Greek part let Champollion crack the hieroglyph code in 1822.

## Practice

23 questions on this page, each with its working shown.

## Needs first

- [Egyptian Social Hierarchy](https://lightmysky.com/learn/history/egyptian-social-hierarchy-mt_bEvMBUv4eG)
- [Knowing all letters](https://lightmysky.com/learn/english/knowing-all-letters-mt_frDIaXzWbx)
- [Hieroglyphs and Papyrus](https://lightmysky.com/learn/history/hieroglyphs-and-papyrus-mt_iFkd0CTwlA)

## Opens up

- [Egyptian Trade and Economy](https://lightmysky.com/learn/history/egyptian-trade-and-economy-mt_5OxKnrGEMP)
- [Historical Sources on Ancient Egypt](https://lightmysky.com/learn/history/historical-sources-on-ancient-egypt-mt_bhEuF-CCuY)