Miscellaneous Paper, Monmouth College Archives, Section D-3, Monmouth College History, Box 1, Monmouth College History-Canopus Stone Folder.

THE CANOPUS STONE

     Canopus was an ancient coast town located fifteen miles east of Alexandria, Egypt.  It was the principal port of the country before the founding of Alexandria.  A great temple of Osiris was located here.

    Ptolemy III, born about 282 B. C. reigned until 222 B. C.  He was a great patron of the arts and literature and a benefactor of the temples of Egypt, having marched to Babylon to bring back 2,500 images of Egyptian gods which had been carried away by  Cambyses.

     The great benefits which Ptolemy III had conferred upon the priesthood of Egypt induced them to assemble at Canopus and, in a birthday festival honoring King Ptolemy and his queen Bernice, they issued a famous decree.  Copies of this decree were ordered to be cut on stelae (stone) which were to be set up in every temple in Egypt.  The original stone was seven feet high, two and half feet broad and the same in depth and the inscription was engraved in three languages:  in Hieroglyphic, in Greek, and in the Hieratic (or Egyptian) characters.

     Besides paying high tribute to Ptolemy, this decree provided for an important reform in the famous Egyptian calendar.  It ordered one day to be added to the calendar every fourth year, thus anticipating the leap year of our own times.

     The Canopus Stone is considered by some to be superior to the Rosetta Stone.  It was discovered during the French expedition of about 1800.  Three casts of the stone have been taken:  one for the Royal Museum of Berlin, one for the British Museum, and one for Monmouth College, Illinois.  The College permitted a model to be taken and kept by the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D. C.

Bibliography:

Encyclopedia Britannica Vol. 4, p. 761.

Budge - History of the Egyptian People, p. 154-55

Scribners, Vol. 6, August 1873, p. 414-421.