Read the excerpt from The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone. But what did the passages in Egyptian mean? Did they contain exactly the same message as the Greek passage? The last sentence of the Greek text said, "This decree shall be inscribed on a stela [slab] of hard stone in sacred [hieroglyphic] and native [demotic] and Greek characters,” so it seemed clear that the inscription was the same in all three languages. That way, the priests’ statement could be read by Egyptians who understood Greek, as well as by those who knew only one or both of the Egyptian languages. But the scholars were still far from being able to decipher either the hieroglyphs or the demotic writing.

Which detail from the excerpt explains the purpose of the three languages on the Rosetta Stone?

The last sentence of the Greek text said, “This decree shall be inscribed on a stela [slab] of hard stone in sacred [hieroglyphic] and native [demotic] and Greek characters.”

[S]o it seemed clear that the inscription was the same in all three languages.

That way, the priests’ statement could be read by Egyptians who understood Greek, as well as by those who knew only one or both of the Egyptian languages.

But the scholars were still far from being able to decipher either the hieroglyphs or the demotic writings.