The Behistun Inscription
Darius, the king Ezra and Haggai date their events by, left his own account of his reign — and the same stone is what made Akkadian readable.
Außerbiblisch genanntInschriftc. 520 BC
Darius I's account of his rise, cut into a cliff a hundred metres up, in three languages. Because the same text appears in three scripts it became the key that unlocked cuneiform — which is why any of the Assyrian and Babylonian records here can be read at all.
I am Darius the Great King, King of Kings, King in Persia, King of countries…
- Gefunden
- A cliff face at Behistun, western Iran, 1835 — Copied at great risk by Henry Rawlinson
- Heute in
- In place, on the cliff
- Sprache
- Old Persian, Elamite, Akkadian
- Wie es zu uns kam
- Ausgegraben oder noch dort stehend, wo es errichtet wurde.
Was er zeigt
Darius's version of his own accession is royal propaganda and is read as such; its value here is the king, the dating and the decipherment.
Wie Historiker es nutzen
The foundation of Assyriology. Every cuneiform text quoted anywhere is read through the decipherment this inscription enabled.
In der Schrift
Verbunden mit
Quellen
Diese Texte liegen vorerst auf Englisch vor. Übersetzungen folgen.