Although there is some debate about the exact date, on what was
likely July 19, 1799, during Napoleon Bonaparte’s Egyptian campaign,
a French soldier discovers a black basalt slab inscribed with ancient writing near the town of Rosetta, about 35 miles east of Alexandria.

The irregularly shaped stone contained fragments of passages written
in three different scripts: Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics and Egyptian demotic. The ancient Greek on the Rosetta Stone told archaeologists
that it was inscribed by priests honoring the king of Egypt, Ptolemy V,
in the second century B.C. More startlingly, the Greek passage announced that the three scripts were all of identical meaning.

The artifact thus held the key to solving the riddle of hieroglyphics, a written language that had been “dead” for nearly 2,000 years.

Paintings of Napoleon in Egypt.

(FoxNews) – A Mississippi wildlife processor made a startling
discovery when he found that an alligator was carrying around
a 6,000-year-old artifact (above) in its stomach.

Shane Smith, a processor and owner of Red Antler Processing,
took a look at the 13-foot alligator’s stomach after hearing
about a processor in South Carolina who discovered unusual
items in another gator. What he found blew him away: an
arrowhead and a plummet.

Smith first thought that the alligator could have eaten an arrow
that someone shot at it, but the plummet helped him realize that
it was likely something just laying around that the gator ate u. A Mississippi state geologist examined a photo of the arrowhead
and determined it was between 5,000 and 6,000 years old. 

The 750-pound alligator that had the years old items found
in its stomach.

(FoxNews) – A mysterious bronze death mask of French Emperor Napoleon
(above) offers a macabre glimpse into his death in exile on the remote Atlantic island of St. Helena.     

The mask was cast from a mold taken shortly after Napoleon’s death, according
to New Orleans gallery M.S. Rau Antiques, which is selling the artifact for 
$34,500. Napoleon, who had been exiled to the British territory of St. Helena following his defeat in the Battle of Waterloo, died on May 5, 1821. The 250th
anniversary of Napoleon’s birth is August 15.

Napoleon’s Tomb on St Helena.

(FoxNews) – A stunning artifact from the Revolutionary War – General George Washington’s field tent – will go on display when the Museum of the American
Revolution opens its doors in April.

Dubbed “the first Oval Office,” the canvas tent will be the cornerstone of the Philadelphia-based Museum’s collection of approximately 3,000 Revolutionary
War-era artifacts.

The museum’s opening on April 19 will be the first time in decades that the tent
has been on public display.