Editing Rosetta Stone (section)

===Original stele===
[[File:RosettaStoneAsPartOfOriginalStele revised.svg|thumb|upright=1.05|alt="Image of the Rosetta Stone set against a reconstructed image of the original stele it came from, showing 14 missing lines of hieroglyphic text and a group of Egyptian deities and symbols at the top"|One possible reconstruction of the original [[stele]]]]

The Rosetta Stone is a fragment of a larger stele. No additional fragments were found in later searches of the Rosetta site.<ref name="Cracking20">[[#Parkinson69|Parkinson et al. (1999)]] p.&nbsp;20</ref> Owing to its damaged state, none of the three texts is complete. The top register, composed of Egyptian hieroglyphs, suffered the most damage. Only the last 14 lines of the hieroglyphic text can be seen; all of them are broken on the right side, and 12 of them on the left. Below it, the middle register of demotic text has survived best; it has 32 lines, of which the first 14 are slightly damaged on the right side. The bottom register of Greek text contains 54 lines, of which the first 27 survive in full; the rest are increasingly fragmentary due to a diagonal break at the bottom right of the stone.<ref name="Budgea2">[[#Budge69|Budge (1913)]] pp.&nbsp;2–3</ref>

<div>The full length of the hieroglyphic text and the total size of the original stele, of which the Rosetta Stone is a fragment, can be estimated based on comparable steles that have survived, including other copies of the same order. The slightly earlier [[decree of Canopus]], erected in 238 BC during the reign of [[Ptolemy III Euergetes|Ptolemy&nbsp;III]], is {{convert|2190|mm|ft|disp=x| high (|)}} and {{convert|abbr=on|820|mm}} wide, and contains 36 lines of hieroglyphic text, 73 of demotic text, and 74 of Greek. The texts are of similar length.<ref name="Mummy106">[[#Budgem|Budge (1894)]] p.&nbsp;106</ref> From such comparisons, it can be estimated that an additional 14 or 15 lines of hieroglyphic inscription are missing from the top register of the Rosetta Stone, amounting to another {{Convert|300|mm}}.<ref name="Mummy109">[[#Budgem|Budge (1894)]] p.&nbsp;109</ref> In addition to the inscriptions, there would probably have been a scene depicting the king being presented to the gods, topped with a winged disc, as on the Canopus Stele. These parallels, and a hieroglyphic sign for "stela" on the stone itself (see [[Gardiner's sign list#O. Buildings, parts of buildings, etc.|Gardiner's sign list]]),
:<hiero>O26</hiero>
suggest that it originally had a rounded top.<ref name="Ray3"/><ref name="Cracking26">[[#Parkinson69|Parkinson et al. (1999)]] p.&nbsp;26</ref> The height of the original stele is estimated to have been about {{Convert|149|cm|ftin}}.<ref name="Cracking26"/></div>