system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 How do experts go about translating ancient languages? (For example Sumerian/Akkadian)

So I've been learning more about ancient civilizations from a podcast during my commute to work. Sometimes they talk about texts from during those times and read them. It's poetry, letters to people, etc.
I'm curious how did/do experts interpret and translate these texts so we can understand them now.
gpt
Archeologists find something like the Rosetta Stone (which had Ancient Greek next to Egyptian Hieroglyphics) which has a known language side by side with the language in question. Historians use finds like that to build a rudimentary dictionary to assist with translation.