Tristan Hughes

You've kind of highlighted this already, but I want to go back to it just quickly.

So an official document, three different languages, but what exactly is it talking about?

Right, that's so interesting because once again, the context of the Hellenistic world, this time that I found absolutely fascinating, the emergence of these divine ruler cults.

But it's so interesting, you said, we have a place like ancient Egypt where the pharaoh was always seen as a god in their own right and the Ptolemies having to almost impose their own version of it.

on the people, on the priests, and a great example to see that.

We think of the Rosetta Stone with the deciphering of hieroglyphs, which we'll get to.

But it's also fascinating in, I'm presuming, in that development of divine ruler cult in Ptolemaic Egypt too.

A bit of a local feel.

And Rosetta, let's focus on Rosetta.

I know that you went to modern Rashid, Rosetta, not too long ago.

Whereabouts are we talking with Rosetta in Egypt today?

so much more to the story as you revealed in your exhibition, where you mentioned the French there.

So let's therefore go on in time to the early 19th century, or was it the late 18th century?

Talk to me about the discovery or the rediscovery of the Rosetta Stone.

Because Demotic, that hadn't also been translated at that time.

It's not just the hieroglyphs, is it?

And I mean, focusing a bit more on that.

So it seems as if before this stone is discovered, is there already attempts by people across the known world to try and decipher this hieroglyphic, this Egyptian ancient script?

Was that a key part of the exhibition you were keen to highlight?

Because so often we think of Champollion, Young, maybe William Banks as well, but the story of the actual attempt to decipher hieroglyphs, it actually starts much, much earlier than the actual finding of the Rosetta Stone.