Image Details

A. Hakemi

This Elamite cuneiform inscription was discovered on a 24-foot-long stone slab in Persepolis’s southern platform wall. It was part of a trilingual inscription, with text in Elamite, Babylonian Akkadian and Old Persian. Whereas other Achaemenid trilinguals provide the same text in each of the three languages, this one does not: The Elamite text states that Darius built “upon this place this fortress”; the Akkadian text praises the god Ahuramazda and provides a list of vassal lands; and the two Old Persian texts are longer and more detailed versions of the Akkadian texts. Why this departure from the norm? According to author Ali Mousavi, the Elamite foundation inscription was probably inscribed first, before Darius adapted cuneiform writing for the Old Persian language. The Akkadian and Old Persian inscriptions were added later.