羅塞塔石碑——破解埃及象形文字之謎的秘匙

by Jangaplanet

關(guān)于羅塞塔石碑

石碑由上至下共刻有同一段詔書的三種語言版本，最上面是古埃及象形文（又稱圣書體，代表獻(xiàn)給神明的文字），中間是埃及草書（又稱為世俗體，是當(dāng)時(shí)埃及平民使用的文字），最下面的是古希臘文（代表統(tǒng)治者的語言，這是因?yàn)楫?dāng)時(shí)的埃及已臣服于希臘的亞歷山大帝國之下，來自希臘的統(tǒng)治者要求統(tǒng)治領(lǐng)地內(nèi)所有的此類文書都要添加希臘文的譯版）。羅塞塔石碑獨(dú)特的三語對照寫法成為解碼的關(guān)鍵，因?yàn)楣畔ＥD文是近代人類可以閱讀的文字，利用這關(guān)鍵來比對分析碑上其他兩種語言的內(nèi)容，就可以了解這些失傳語言的文字與文法結(jié)構(gòu)。

On July 15th， 1799， a French soldier noticed a strange stone in the wall of an old fort[堡壘] near the town of Rashid， Egypt. The town， also called Rosetta， is in the delta[三角洲] of the Nile River and was part of the area occupied by the French Army at that time. France， under Napoleon Bonaparte注， had invaded[侵略] Egypt in 1799 as a means of establishing[建立] a French presence[存在] in the Middle East.

The stone was dark granite[花崗巖]， smoothly finished. It was 3 feet 9 inches long and 2 feet 4.5 inches wide， and what made it noticeable[值得注意的] was that it had some sort of inscription[碑銘] carved onto it. The soldiers commanding officer[指揮官] called in some archaeologists[考古學(xué)家]， who had accompanied[陪伴] the French Army to Egypt， to show them the find. They soon realized that the stones inscription was in three different languages： ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs[象形文字]， a script[書寫體] called Demotic[古埃及通俗文字] （an alphabet writing also used by the Egyptians） and ancient Greek.

Greek， even in its ancient form， was well known to Europeans， but the secret to reading hieroglyphs and Demotic had died out nearly two thousand years before. Europeans were awed[充滿敬畏的] by the artifacts[史前古器物]， temples and monuments[紀(jì)念碑] of Egypt， but they had no way to read or understand the inscriptions that would tell them who had built these marvels[奇妙之物] and what they meant. This stone， they saw， was the means[方法] to unlock the written record of the ancient civilization.

The British invaded Egypt and defeated[擊敗] the French in 1801， and took possession[占有] of the Rosetta Stone along with many other archaeological treasures unearthed by the French. Although they took the stone back to London， where it was given to the British Museum， they made copies of the inscriptions. These copies were widely distributed[分發(fā)] throughout Europe， where they were studied by experts in ancient languages. Ironically[諷刺地]， it was a French professor and linguist[語言學(xué)家] named Jean-Fran？ois Champollion， who broke the code. In 1822， he published a paper giving the translation of the inscription and provided an early dictionary of Egyptian hieroglyphics. According to the translation， the stone pillar[柱子] bore a decree[法令] from King Ptolemy V from the year 196 B.C.

Being able to read the ancient Egyptian languages from this stone gave archaeologists a way to learn a great deal about the history and culture of ancient Egypt. Finally， they could read the numerous[無數(shù)的] inscriptions found on walls， stele[石碑] and in tombs， and could then interpret[解釋] the meaning of the objects they excavated[挖掘]. Two hundred years after its discovery， the Rosetta Stone is still considered to be the key to the beginning of modern Egyptology[埃及學(xué)].

The Rosetta Stone has become a monument to the value of communication between languages， across distance and through time. It is so important that its name has become synonymous[同義的] with the breakthrough to any discovery.

Today， the Rosetta Stone can still be seen in the British Museum. It is the most-visited object in their collection.

1799年7月15日，一名法國士兵在埃及拉希德鎮(zhèn)附近一處舊壁壘的墻中發(fā)現(xiàn)了一塊奇怪的石頭。位于尼羅河三角洲的拉希德也叫羅塞塔，是當(dāng)時(shí)法軍占領(lǐng)區(qū)的一部分。1799年，拿破侖·波拿巴統(tǒng)治下的法國入侵埃及，借此在中東地區(qū)確立自己的勢力。

這塊石頭是一塊深色的花崗巖，打磨得很平整，長3英尺9英寸（114厘米），寬2英尺4.5英寸（72厘米）。這塊石頭最引人注目的是上面刻著碑文。這名士兵的指揮官隨即召來幾位隨軍來到埃及的考古學(xué)家，向他們展示這個(gè)發(fā)現(xiàn)?？脊艑W(xué)家們很快意識到，石頭上的碑文是以三種不同的語言寫成的——古埃及象形文字、古埃及世俗體（埃及人使用的另一種文字）以及古希臘文。

歐洲人對希臘文——即便是其古文形式——并不陌生，但埃及象形文字和通俗文字的解讀方法卻早在近兩千年前便已失傳。歐洲人對埃及的文物、寺廟和紀(jì)念碑懷抱敬仰之心，但他們卻無法讀懂和理解這些記錄著奇跡的建造者及其意思的銘文。他們意識到，這塊石頭就是解讀古埃及文明記錄的方法。

后來，英國入侵埃及，并于1801年擊敗法國，把法國人發(fā)現(xiàn)的羅塞塔石碑和其他許多古物據(jù)為己有。英國人雖然把羅塞塔石碑帶回倫敦并贈與大英博物館，不過他們也復(fù)制了碑文的副本。這些副本在整個(gè)歐洲廣為流傳，因此歐洲各地的古代語言學(xué)家得以對其進(jìn)行研究。諷刺的是，是一位名叫尚-佛罕索瓦·商博良的法國教授和語言學(xué)家破解了文字密碼。1822年，他發(fā)表了一篇論文，給出了羅塞塔石碑的譯文，并提供了一本早期的埃及象形文字的字典。根據(jù)這篇譯文，這塊石柱上寫的是埃及國王托勒密五世在公元前196年頒布的一道法令。

由于能夠從這塊石頭上解讀古埃及語言，考古學(xué)家們就找到了深入了解古埃及歷史和文化的一個(gè)途徑。他們終于可以解讀在墻壁、碑柱和墓穴中發(fā)現(xiàn)的大量銘文，從而解讀他們挖掘出來的文物的意思。在出土兩百年后的今天，羅塞塔石碑仍被視為現(xiàn)代埃及學(xué)發(fā)端的關(guān)鍵。

羅塞塔石碑已經(jīng)成為一個(gè)里程碑，銘刻著跨時(shí)空語言溝通的價(jià)值。它是如此重要，以至于“羅塞塔”這個(gè)名字已經(jīng)成為一切突破性發(fā)現(xiàn)的代名詞。

今天，我們?nèi)匀豢梢栽诖笥⒉┪镳^看到羅塞塔石碑，它是館內(nèi)最多人觀看的藏品。

趣聞軼事

在第一次世界大戰(zhàn)期間，羅塞塔石碑及其他重要展品曾被轉(zhuǎn)移到一個(gè)地鐵站里，以免在倫敦受到轟炸時(shí)受損。

羅塞塔石碑上的碑文記述了年僅13歲的希臘裔法老托勒密五世的善行，為的是使埃及人信服其至高無上的地位。

古埃及人認(rèn)為死后的肉身應(yīng)當(dāng)妥善保存，因此他們對君王的尸體進(jìn)行細(xì)致的防腐處理，這個(gè)過程稱為“木乃伊化”（mummification）。在19世紀(jì)之前，歐洲的江湖醫(yī)生常常將木乃伊研磨成粉并出售其粉末，稱其具有藥用價(jià)值。