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SEF / Art Resource, NY

A LINGUISTIC KEY UNLOCKS THREE. This monumental trilingual cuneiform inscription records the deeds of Darius I (Darius the Great), the Persian king who supported the reconstruction of the Jerusalem Temple, according to the Book of Ezra. The several-hundred-square-foot relief and inscription, carved on a cliff near Behistun (modern Bisitun, Iran), depicts an oversized Darius, a winged sun disk, attendants and prisoners hailing the god Ahuramazda. The cuneiform inscription, recorded in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian, provided a key to deciphering all three scripts.