What does the behistun inscription say?

What does the behistun inscription say?

The inscription was illustrated by a life-sized bas-relief of Darius I, the Great, holding a bow as a sign of kingship, with his left foot on the chest of a figure lying on his back before him….Behistun Inscription.

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Criteria Cultural: ii, iii
Reference 1222
Inscription 2006 (30th Session)
Area 187 ha

Why is the behistun inscription important?

First of all, the Bisitun inscription is the longest royal inscription that we have from the Achaemenid Empire (ca. 550 – 330 BCE). In doing so, the Bisitun inscription became the first Achaemenid trilingual. Additionally, it became the first inscription which made use of the Old Persian language and script.

Who created the behistun inscription?

Darius I of Persia
The text of the inscription is a statement by Darius I of Persia, written three times in three different scripts and languages: two languages side by side, Old Persian and Elamite, and Babylonian above them.

What is the importance of the carving at Mt bisotun?

The Bisotun inscription is unique, being the only known monumental text of the Achaemenids to document a specific historic event, that of the re-establishment of the empire by Darius I the Great. It was the first cuneiform writing to be deciphered in the 19th century.

What 3 languages were on the behistun rock?

He also commanded that the story be carved in three languages of the empire: Old Persian, the language of the king and court, inscribed beneath the relief in four and a half columns of closely written texts; in Babylonian, inscribed on two faces of a rock jutting out from the mountainside to the left of the relief; and …

Who is depicted lying underneath Darius’s feet on the behistun inscription?

Darius overlooks nine representatives of conquered peoples, their necks tied. A tenth figure, badly damaged, is laying under the king’s feet. Above these thirteen people is a representation of the supreme god Ahuramazda.

What is the rock of behistun?

Behistun Rock (Bisitun Rock) Behistun, Bisitun, or Bisotun is the word for an ancient village and a steep rock located in today’s Iran. Bisitun became an official UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006. Back in the days, Persian king Darius I carved an inscription in cuneiform into this rock wall.

Where was the key found to deciphering old Persian?

Persepolis
His faithful copies of the cuneiform inscriptions at Persepolis proved to be a key turning-point in the decipherment of cuneiform, and the birth of Assyriology.

What are the behistun rock and the Rosetta Stone?

The Behistun Inscription is known as the Persian Rosetta Stone, due to its role in the decipherment of the ancient scripts. It’s located in the mountains above Behistun, or Bisotun, in modern-day Iran. The Behistun Inscription is written in three different scripts: Old Persian, Elamite and Akkadian.

Who created the Persian language?

According to certain historical assumptions about the early history and origin of ancient Persians in Southwestern Iran (where Achaemenids hailed from), Old Persian was originally spoken by a tribe called Parsuwash, who arrived in the Iranian Plateau early in the 1st millennium BCE and finally migrated down into the …

Is Persian language older than Arabic?

As for the question that which of them is older, then Persian takes the prize if we include the history of its earliest version. The Old Persian had been around since 550-330 BC until it transitioned into the Middle version of the tongue in 224 CE. Old Arabic, on the other hand, emerged in the 1st century CE.

What is the Behistun Inscription?

Updated September 19, 2018. The Behistun inscription (also spelled Bisitun or Bisotun and typically abbreviated as DB for Darius Bisitun) is a 6th century BCE Persian Empire carving. The ancient billboard includes four panels of cuneiform writing around a set of three-dimensional figures, cut deep into a limestone cliff.

Where was Darius the Great’s Inscription?

This is a version of The Sculptures and Inscription of Darius the Great on the Rock of Behistûn in Persia/The Persian Text that has been annotated by the Wikisource community. Modern photograph of the Behistun inscription.

What is the meaning of Behistun?

Behistun or Bisotun: town in Iran, site of several ancient monuments, including a famous inscription by the Persian king Darius I the Great. The full Persian text is here.

Who wrote the first translation of Behistun?

The 19th-century Persian scholar Mohammad Hasan Khan E’temad al-Saltaneh (1843–96) published the first Persian translation of the Behistun translation. He noted but disputed the then-current idea that Darius or Dara might have been matched to King Lohrasp of the Zoroastrian religious and Persian epic traditions.

author

Back to Top