FIGURE 39. The Rosetta Stone [courtesy of the British Museum].out the same way. That is why the meaning is part of the text itself; it acts
upon intelligence in a predictable way. Generally, we can say: meaning is
part of an object to the extent that it acts upon intelligence in a predictable
way.
In Figure 39 is shown the Rosetta stone, one of the most precious of all
historic discoveries. It was the key to the decipherment of Egyptian hiero-
glyphics, for it contains parallel text in three ancient scripts: hieroglyphics,
demotic characters, and Greek. The inscription on this basalt stele was first
deciphered in 1821 by Jean Fran~ois Champollion, the "father of Egyptol-
ogy"; it is a decree of priests assembled at Memphis in favor of Ptolemy V
Epiphanes.
The Location of Meaning^165