I get the feeling a lot of people here don't even know what the Rosetta Stone is, so I'll give a brief summary. It was found in 1799, and was an announcement written on a stone slab. It featured the same message written twice on the same slab in two different languages, one in Greek, one in Egyptian Heiroglyph. The fact that Greek is still spoken make the Rosetta Stone the key to translating Egyptian Heiroglyphics, and is the cornerstone that allowed for all modern translations of Ancient Egyptian Heiroglyphics. Without the Rosetta Stone, we would have next to no information about Ancient Egypt at all.

^True.

It was discovered by the French army, btw.

Don't be patronising, I imagine most people do know what the Rosetta Stone is.

I didn't, but only because I was too lazy to look it up.

Oh... looks like I poaned myself then. Haha.

Weird, I had heard it was a message in 3 different languages, not 2. Now if I can only remember where I heard that.

Check it: http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/writing/rosetta.html

Egyptian used two different scripts. Those plus the Greek.

Oh sweet, so I did hear correctly kind of.

i know i didn't. and i don't think he was trying to be patronizing. he was just saying "in case most people don't know, here it is..."

but it's not every day common knowledge anyway, so assuming that most people here know what it is, itself is kind of patronizing...


in a weird way.


whatever. good thread either way.

I guess so [insert laughing smiley here].

iknew exactly what it was before the song came out..and as soon as i learned the name of it(stoned)...i had a good laugh.

it does, both old hieroglyphs and new.. plus greek.


i was well aware of what the rosetta stone was before this album came out.. upon first listen i knew this song would be key to the album.. maybe tool.

So i'm sure I'm the 10,000th person to mention this, but if Rosetta Stone has two (and a half?) languages on it, greek and heiroglyphics- some know the one language, and can use their understanding to interpret the other- maybe that's the format of this song. I mean think about it, he rambles through a megaphone for half the song, and sings through a mic through the other half. Is it an intential metaphor? If so, which half of the song are we, or some of us, supposed to already understand, and how can we use that understanding to interpret the other half?

And is the origin of the rosetta stone a mystery? I'm not too good at history, were ancient egyptians around at the same time as ancient greece? they spoke to eachother???

Sorry if I sound harsh, I think you have it all wrong.

Maybe it can be like a metaphor or whatever, but I am pretty sure the connection between the song title and the actual Rosetta Stone is this:

The Rosetta Stone is the REASON why we can translate Ancient Greek to Heiroglyphics today. That was a huge deal, to be able to now understand Heiroglyphics.

Therefore, the Rosetta Stone is used as a metaphor for new discoveries, such as the beginning to a whole new world. (Ex. 'This message from the aliens is the Rosetta Stone of a new understanding of beings outside of the Earth.')

And, as we all know, the song is about some guy interacting with aliens (it can be deeper than that but you get the point). And, since he was either 'stoned' when the aliens picked him up, or if he was just going crazy from the fact that he 'forgot his pen' and couldn't remember what they told him, it is a reference to being 'stoned.'

Therefore, the song name is Rosetta Stoned.

quick version

dead head chemistry is not going to be the decoder to mysteries of life.

bingo.

It's funny how little attention is paid to the actual message on the stone itself. Even on sites dedicated to the damn thing, there's barely mention of the message, beyond a translation of the first partagraph or two, which primarily just kiss the pharoah's ass.

If memory serves, I think it was an invitation to a party.

Regardless, slamminsalmon made my favorite single sentence assessment of a tool song, #15 above. Right on.

Please forgive this maybe stupid question, but. Who is Bob?
"Bob please help me." is the line.
Can anyone answer that for me?

Nevermind, i found the BOB HELP ME forum, Seek and you shall fucking find.

I think he's referring to a thread covering this subject. But to make it easy for ya' Bob is what Maynard calls God. It's a joke and I beleive meant to humanize the idea of what god is. Kind of like saying Jesus was just a regular guy with a good idea and message but he was still a mortal like the rest of us. I may be wrong about his meaning behind it but, instead of saying "God help me" he says "Bob help me"...perhaps because he refuses to choose any particular god.

The same message written twice in different languages? Almost like how the riffs present in Rosetta Stoned are recontextualisations of several key Tool riffs from other songs?

fluxterpation, anyone?

the message was written three times