Rosetta Stone have originally been displayed within a temple, possibly at nearby Sais. It was probably moved during the early Christian or medieval period, and was eventually used as building material in the construction of Fort Julien near the town of Rashid (Rosetta) in the Nile Delta. It was rediscovered there in July 1799 by a French soldier named Pierre-François Bouchard during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt. It was the first Ancient Egyptian bilingual text recovered in modern times, and it aroused widespread public interest with its potential to decipher this previously untranslated hieroglyphic language. Lithographic copies and plaster casts began circulating
The Rosetta Foundation powered by SOLAS. The foundation is named after the Rosetta Stone. The aim of The Rosetta Foundation is to provide information to as many people as possible, in their own languages. Some of the core concept are described in a paper published by Reinhard Schäler: "Information Sharing across Languages". The European launch took place at the AGIS ’09 conference in Limerick, Ireland on 21–23 September 2009. The President of the University of Limerick, Professor Don Barry, announced the launch of The Rosetta Foundation on 21 September 2009 during his welcoming address to the AGIS '09 delegates. AGIS, Action for Global