Formal Requests, Community-Based Activism, and Alternative Approaches: Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele dating back to 196 BCE. It is inscribed with a royal decree issued in three scripts: hieroglyphic, demotic and ancient Greek. This trilingual text enabled the decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs by Jean-François Champollion in 1822.

The Rosetta Stone originated in the city of Rashid (modern-day Rosetta), located in the Nile Delta of Egypt. It was discovered near the Rosetta Citadel in 1799 during Napoleon’s military campaign in Egypt.

The Rosetta Stone is a globally recognised symbol of Egyptology and ancient civilisation and is seen as the key to Egypt’s linguistic past. Its unique form and historical significance make it one of the most emblematic cultural belongings in the world. To the Egyptian people, however, it is a symbol of Egypt’s historical sovereignty, national identity and civilisational continuity. Locally, residents of Rosetta see the belonging as part of their town’s legacy and a source of communal pride. Nationally, it has been invoked in political discourse, public campaigns and even parliamentary elections, symbolising resistance to cultural appropriation and colonial plunder. For Egypt, the Stone embodies the country’s rightful claim to interpret and safeguard its own history.

The Rosetta Stone has been held at The British Museum, London, United Kingdom, since 1802. Prior to this it was held briefly in Alexandria, Egypt in 1801 by French military forces

The Rosetta Stone was “discovered” in 1799 by French soldiers during Napoleon’s occupation of Egypt. Following France’s defeat, the 1801 Capitulation of Alexandria British forces seized it and transferred it to Britain. Egypt had no sovereign representation in these negotiations, as the country was under foreign military occupation. The broader colonial dynamic of the Napoleonic and British imperial presence enabled the belonging’s extraction without the consent of the Egyptian people.

The removal of the Rosetta Stone deprived Egypt of one of its most powerful cultural symbols and scholarly tools. For over two centuries, its absence has been a painful reminder of the cultural disenfranchisement under colonialism. It disrupted Egypt’s capacity to tell its own story and to anchor its modern identity in its ancient past. It also became a symbol of how Egypt’s contributions to world heritage were hijacked and interpreted through a Western lens.

In 1922, the Egyptian daily newspaper Al-Ahram began publishing opinion pieces that called for the return of looted heritage. This public discourse, which received main coverage in the publication, was triggered by three things: the nationalist wave that swept the nation after the 1919 Revolution, Egypt’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain in 1922 and the global rise of “Egyptomania” following the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb by British archaeologist, Howard Carter, that year. Over the next six years, prominent Egyptian intellectuals such as Taha Hussein and Salama Moussa decried the removal, exploitation and misrepresentation of ancient belongings by colonial powers and emphasised Egypt’s newfound capacity to conserve and interpret its own past. These discussions coincided with tighter excavation regulations introduced in 1924 by Pierre Lacau, then Head of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, which curtailed the outflow of belongings from Egypt and reinforced national heritage management while also positioning Egypt as a pioneer in linking heritage preservation to anti-colonial nationalism and cultural justice on the global stage.

In 1928, Al-Ahram published a bold article explicitly calling for the return of the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum, marking one of the first public demands for cultural repatriation in the modern Arab world. A series of subsequent editorials shaped the Rosetta  Stone as a symbol of Egypt’s stolen legacy and its restitution as a matter of public concern, diplomatic priority and national pride. This persistent coverage continued until the mid-1930s, keeping the issue of restitution alive and establishing cultural heritage as a key pillar of Egyptian nationalism.

In the 1960s and 1970s Egyptian national efforts at cultural repatriation were overshadowed by military conflicts that diverted state resources. However, Minister of Culture Tharwat Okasha made major strides in positioning Egypt as a global steward of heritage through the establishment of cultural institutions and the internationally coordinated salvage operation of the Abu Simbel temple complex threatened by flooding in 1964. The mission’s success contributed to Egypt’s role in developing the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention and established a network of international actors crucial for future cultural diplomacy.

The year 1972 marked the 150th anniversary of the publication of Jean-François Champollion’s Letter to M. Dacier, which deciphered the Rosetta Stone. In October 1972, after complex negotiations, the British Museum agreed to loan the Stone to the Louvre Museum for one month, the only time it has ever left The British Museum since its acquisition. The exhibition celebrated French contributions to Egyptology but excluded the country of origin, reinforcing European control over Egyptian heritage. Simultaneously, the British Museum gifted a full-scale replica to Egypt, unveiled in Cairo and Rosetta in a public ceremony. Though symbolic, these acts signalled evolving recognition of Egypt’s cultural claims and set the stage for renewed restitution advocacy.

On 18th September 1985, Egypt launched a major cultural heritage initiative, the restoration of the Rosetta Citadel. Led by the Ministry of Culture and the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the project revitalised over 15 key historical sites and installed a full-scale replica of the Rosetta Stone at the site of its original discovery, accompanied by translations of the inscriptions.  This indirect form of cultural repatriation asserted national heritage claims and reaffirmed Egypt’s historical and linguistic ownership of the Stone. The significance of this moment was elevated by the presence of President Hosni Mubarak, Prime Minister Dr. Ali Lotfi, Minister of Culture, Dr. Ahmed Heikal and city council president Dr. Lebib Zamzam at the opening ceremony.

On 14th September 1986, Al-Ahram reported on a public meeting in Rashid, organised by the Popular Committee for the Defense of Antiquities. Citizens, intellectuals, scholars and public figures asserted that the Rosetta Stone was a symbol of national identity and historical continuity stolen during foreign occupation, and called for Egypt to petition UNESCO and the United Nations for its return.

Although the Egyptian government actively supported the reintegration of the Rosetta Stone into the country’s historical memory, they remained ambivalent about initiating a formal demand for its return. In December 1989, Dr. Sayed Tawfiq, Chief Archaeologist and Chairman of The Supreme Council of Antiquities stated that antiquities were “our ambassadors abroad—we don’t need them here!”. He emphasised that recovering recently looted  belongings took priority and that colonial artefacts like the Rosetta Stone, were more valuable as tools for promoting Egypt’s heritage internationally.

From the 1990s to 2000s. under Minister of Culture Farouk Hosny and Egyptologist Dr Zahi Hawass, informal proposals for short-term loans of the Stone were repeatedly rejected by the British Museum due to concerns around the Stones safety, in Egypt. However, in 2005, the British Museum gifted a second full-sized fibreglass replica to Egypt, now housed in the renovated Rashid National Museum.

As early as 1992, President Mubarak announced plans to develop the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), to house, exhibit and interpret ancient Egyptian belongings. The project was revived in 2011, after the January 25th Revolution, with a focus on digital repatriation and constructive international cooperation. Though proposals for digital access were unsuccessful due to limited negotiating leverage and British Museum resistance, the strategy laid the groundwork for future advocacy.

Dr Monica Hanna, Egyptian Egyptologist and Dean at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT) in Aswan, emerged as a leading advocate for heritage protection. Through social media campaigns, YouTube videos, podcasts, documentaries and online petitions, Hanna framed restitution as a moral imperative rooted in cultural justice and historical accountability. In 2022, she co-founded the Repatriate Rashid campaign, launching a petition emphasising the ethical and symbolic importance of returning the Rosetta Stone.

In the same year, Dr Zahi Hawass launched a global online petition calling for the Stone’s repatriation, highlighting its unique significance and colonial-era removal. By June 2025, the petition had garnered over 246,000 verified signatures.

Together, Hanna and Hawass renewed media and diplomatic attention on the Rosetta Stone and in 2023, the art-tech collective Looty, led by Chidi Nwaubani and Ahmed Abokor, conducted a symbolic digital “heist.” With Hanna present, they 3D scanned the Rosetta Stone and used location-based augmented reality to digitally repatriate it to Rashid, allowing local users to view a life-size replica via smartphone using QR code access – a powerful statement on ownership, accessibility and colonial legacies.

In November 2025, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is set to open near the Giza Pyramids. Home to over 100,000 cultural belongings, including Tutankhamun’s tomb collection, GEM features advanced conservation labs, research facilities and security systems. It functions as both a showcase of Egypt’s history and a strategic tool for cultural restitution advocacy.

As of July 2025, the Rosetta Stone has not been physically returned to Egypt. However, sustained national and international campaigns, digital restitution tools and the imminent opening of GEM have significantly advanced Egypt’s moral and political claim. Formal restitution remains unresolved, but Egypt is closer than ever to building global consensus on the ethical imperative of repatriation.