[SunkenCiv]

The Rosetta Stone, the Palermo Stone, and a bunch of other inscriptions existed, but it’s not terribly unlikely that most people weren’t literate in the first place, and those who were would read the Greek or Latin version. After they’d read the message, they didn’t need to read it again. Y’know, unless they were really OCD.

[Verginius Rufus]

After the Coptic alphabet (largely based on the Greek alphabet) was developed, there was a much easier way to become literate. Egyptian Christians still use Coptic.

A fourth-century Roman historian gives a translation of the text on an Egyptian obelisk in Rome, but until hieroglyphics were deciphered, there was no way to assess the accuracy of his translation.