The sort of artefact that make history fascinating. Amazing to behold, a fascinating story, a controversial past and the key to the mystery of hieroglyphics.

The Rosetta Stone has inscribed on it a decree by priests honouring Ptolemy V, who was 13 at the time. The inscription is in hieroglyphic and demotic - both scripts of the Egyptian language - and Greek. Comparing the known Greek with the hieroglyphs with some remarkable talent became the key to deciphering the written language of hieroglyphs.

The Rosetta Stone can be seen for free at the British Museum. I highly recommend it. You could also read Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure a manga comic book featuring the Rosetta Stone.

The Rosetta Stone

A helpful observation from not following this many times in my life.

Front load names to cue attention

It’s good to know your waxing (growing) from your waning (shrinking), and that a gibbous is the shape of the moon when you take a crescent of shadow from a circle of light, and that the hardest moon to see is a new one.

If it’s light on the right, it’s gonna get bright. If it’s light on the left, it ain’t.

Like the moon? Apparently so do I: See the moon illusion, super moon, one side of the moon or just sketchplanations > astronomy.

Phases of the moon