For my money the best object of all at the British Museum is the Rosetta Stone - a decree of Ptolemy, one of the last pharaohs, carved in three languages on a polished black stone. The carving is in hieroglyphics, demotic Egyptian script and Greek. It was the Greek inscription that was used to unlock the mystery of the other writing, including the hieroglyphics, and, therefore just about everything now known about ancient Egypt. A wonder indeed!


