Inscription of Behistun

the inscription of Behistun (or Béhistoun or Bisistun ) is with the writing Cunéiforme what the Pierre de Rosette is with the Hiéroglyphe S Egyptians: the most crucial document in the Deciphering of this writing forgotten.

The inscription

The text itself is a declaration of Darius I {{er}} of Persia, writes three times in three writings and languages different: two languages side by side, Old man-Persan and élamite, and akkadien above them. Darius reigned on the Persian Empire of -521 with -486.

Towards 515, he reports in a long account his accession with the throne vis-a-vis the usurper Smerdis of Persia like his following victorious wars and the repression of the rebellion. The texts are engraved on a cliff close to the modern city of Bisutun, in the mounts Zagros in Iran, with the entry of the Plaine of Kermanshah.

The inscription, of roughly 15 meters in height and 25 meters broad, is with 100 meters above the ancient road connecting the capitals of Babylon in Babylonia and of Ecbatane of the Empire mède. It is extremely not very accessible, the mountain having been levelled to make the inscription more obvious after engraving. The text as Persan old man contains 414 lines in five columns; the text élamite includes/understands 593 lines in eight columns and the text akkadien comprises 112 of them. The inscription was illustrated of a low-relief representing Darius, two servants, life size and ten one meter high characters representing the conquered people. The god Ahura Mazda fleet above, giving its blessing to the king. A character seems to be added after the others, in the same way, rather curiously, the beard of Darius, is a block of stone independent fixed by pins and wire of iron.

Diffusion

A translation in araméen of the inscription belongs to the papyrus araméens of Elephantine. Another translation in araméen was found with Saqqarah, in Egypt, and of the versions in Akkadien were found with Babylon.

First historical and legendary posterity

The first historical mention of the inscription is made by the Greek historian Ctésias, which noted its existence towards 400. Tacit also, mentions it and describes some of the auxiliary monuments, forgotten a long time, at the base of cliff, where a source is. What in remainder is in conformity with its description. Diodore of Sicily also writes on “Bagistanon” and declares that the text was registered by the queen Sémiramis of Babylon.

After the fall of the Persian Empire and its successors, and after the wedge-shaped writing fell in disuse, the significance of the inscription was forgotten and of whimsical interpretations became the standard. During centuries, one thus thought that it was due to Khosro II.

A legend appeared, according to which, it would have been created by Fahrad, lover of Shirin, the wife of Khosro II. Exiled for its fault, Fahrad would have had as a task to cut the mountain to find water there, if it succeeded, it would have the permission to marry Shirin. After many years and to have moved half of the mountain, it would have found water, but to learn from Khosro II the death of Shirin. Insane of pain, it would have thrown cliff. Shirin which had naturally not died, would have been hung by learning the news.

Discovered by Europeans

In 1598, the inscription is revealed in Western Europe when Robert Sherley, an English with the service of the Austria, discovers it at the time of a diplomatic mission in Persia. He arrives at the conclusion which it is about a representation of the Ascension of Jesus Christ. False European biblical interpretations will be spread during the two centuries which follow: they evoke the Christ and her Apôtre S, or the tribes of Israel and Salmanazar.

In 1835 Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, an officer of the British army involving the army of the Shah of Iran, starts to study the inscription seriously. While the name of the town of Bisistun is anglicized in current “the Behistun”, the monument becomes known under the name of “inscription of Behistun”. In spite of its inaccessibility, Rawlinson can climb cliff and copy the inscription in old man-Persian. The version élamite, which are other side of an abyss, and the Akkadien, located four meters above, are less easy access and are given to a later access.

Armed with the text old man-Persian, and approximately a third of the Spelling-book provided by German Georg Friedrich Grotefend, expert into wedge-shaped, Rawlinson deciphers the text. By chance, the first part of the text gives a list of Persian kings identical to that mentioned by Hérodote. By putting in correspondence the names and the characters, Rawlinson can, towards 1838, to decipher the wedge-shaped characters used for the Persan old man.

Later the study comes from the two remaining texts. After one period of service in Afghanistan, Rawlinson, in 1843 returns. By using boards, it crosses space between the text old man-Persian and the élamite, which it copies. It recruits a boy undertaking of the surroundings, who climbs along a crack in cliff and to install cord at the level of the text in akkadien. This way, it can take the print of the text in Paper-chewed. Rawlinson is put at work and translates at the same time the writing akkadienne and the language, independently of work of Edward Hincks, Julius Oppert and William Henry Fox Talbot, which also contributes to the deciphering. Edwin Norris and others are the first to be made in the same way for the élamite. Applying to three of the primary languages of Mésopotamie, and to three variations of the wedge-shaped writing, these decipherings were one of the keys to insert the Assyriologie in the modern time.

It is thought that Darius had specifically placed the inscription in this place to make it unfalsifiable - the legibility passing in the second plan of its requirements: the text is completely illegible on the level of the ground. Unfortunately, the Persian king had not counted on the pond which would be formed with the foot of cliff and on the fact that a road would be open in the sector. The slit by which the boy climbed cliff is today the exit of a small river underground, non-existent at the time of the inscription and drained today, but perhaps the origin of the tale of the research of water by Fahrad. It because of the considerable destruction with certain characters. Darius had not either envisaged the Gunpowder: its monument suffered damage following shootings of soldiers course of the Second world war.

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