First complete copy of the Canopus Decree in hieroglyphics found

Egypt’s antiquities authority has announced a complete hieroglyphic copy of the Canopus Decree from Tell El-Pharaeen in Husseiniya, Sharqiya. The sandstone stela, a carved stone slab used for public inscriptions, is the seventh known copy and the only one written solely in hieroglyphs.

The slab stands about four feet tall. It is the first complete version identified in 150 years, an important milestone that was noted. 

Why this stele matters now

This copy is monolingual, carved only in hieroglyphs, formal picture signs used for sacred and monumental texts. That focus lets scholars test how words and signs behave without the guide of parallel Greek or Demotic.

The work was led by Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). His research centers on Old Kingdom archaeology and heritage stewardship in Egypt.

“To uncover a complete and new version of the Canopus Decree after more than a century and a half is remarkable,” asserted Khaled. The statement underlines why a clean hieroglyphic text can sharpen readings of older, damaged copies.

Understanding the Canopus Decree

The Canopus Decree records a great assembly of priests in 238 B.C.E. under Ptolemy III and was historically carved in hieroglyphic, Demotic, a later cursive Egyptian script used for daily affairs, and Greek. 

The broader story sits alongside the Rosetta Stone, another trilingual inscription that helped scholars decipher ancient Egyptian.

The decree noted a plan to correct the solar calendar by adding one day every four years, an idea preserved in a well known translation. It explained that the timing of the seasons had been off and said the established rules of nature had now been adjusted. 

This stele is topped by a winged sun disk with two royal cobras, and it includes a blank field that may reflect local temple choices. 

Such iconography can anchor the text in its sanctuary setting and may hint at what images or added panels once framed the words.

A single script matters for epigraphy, the study of inscriptions and how they were carved and arranged. Scholars can examine sign order, spacing, and line breaks to see whether priests tailored wording for specific cult centers.

The bigger historical picture

The Canopus Decree does more than list titles or blessings. It recounts a campaign to recover divine images, notes grain imports during a drought, and elevates Princess Berenike to divine status with set rites and festivals.

Such texts also ordered copies to be set up in temples, which explains why versions surface across the Delta.

Finding a complete hieroglyphic text clarifies how priests standardized sacred language during Ptolemaic rule. It also shows where local choices slipped in, from honorific titles to feast days that tied royal policy to neighborhood cult life.

The calendar clause shows how precise the priests wanted civil time to be. Adding a day every four years kept festivals from drifting through the seasons despite a 365 day civil year.

That idea predates later Roman reforms and proves Egyptian temple scholars were tracking quarter day drift with care. A high quality copy in pure hieroglyphs lets philologists check whether the phrasing for the extra day aligns with other priestly decrees.

7th copy of the Canopus Decree

Six copies were known before, most fragmentary and all trilingual. A seventh, complete and hieroglyphic only, puts the language itself front and center.

It also provides a clean control for comparing earlier readings. If a sign sequence here differs from a mixed script version, scholars can revisit whether an older translation leaned too heavily on the Greek.

The find brings together language, religion, and politics in one artifact. It also touches on the wider world of Ptolemaic Egypt, where figures like Berenike appear in texts and in sites along major trade routes.

It shows how royal memory shaped public rites, a social calendar, and local cult practices tied to major families of the period. These currents turned personal loss into a message carried across temples.

You also see how a stone makes scientific thinking visible. A quarter day is tiny, but the priests wrote it into public time so harvests, river rites, and festivals stayed in step.

Looking ahead without hype

Conservation will stabilize the stone before long term study. Careful cleaning and documentation will let specialists record every sign and surface detail.

Epigraphers will then compare its thirty lines with known copies to map each match and mismatch. Their work may clarify how local workshops handled wording, spacing, and religious titles.

No single artifact rewrites history by itself. This stele, however, adds pieces that were previously out of reach and helps refine how we read a well known priestly voice from 238 B.C.E.

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