The Sculptures and Inscription of Darius the Great on the Rock of Behistûn in Persia/Preface
The following pages contain the Persian text, with its Susian and Babylonian versions, of the Inscription which Darius the Great caused to be cut on the Rock of Behistûn, which is situated in Persia on the ancient caravan route between Babylon and Ecbatana. The Inscription was first copied and translated by the late Major-General Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, Bart, G.C.B., whose study of it enabled him to bring to a successful issue the decipherment of the Cuneiform Inscriptions. His edition of the Persian text, accompanied by a Commentary, appeared in the tenth volume of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1847, and his final edition of the texts of the Babylonian version was published by the Trustees of the British Museum in Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. III, plate 39f.
Owing to the difficulty of reaching the Inscription on the rock, the readings of many passages have remained doubtful, and have formed the subject of much discussion. The present volume contains new material which, it is hoped, will assist in fixing the text of such passages, and may be regarded as a supplement to the above-named publications.
The new edition of the texts printed herein is based upon a complete collation of the Inscription, which the Trustees of the British Museum instructed Mr. L. W. King, M.A., F.S.A., Assistant in the Department, to make in 1904. Mr. R. C. Thompson, M.A., then Assistant in the Department, was deputed to assist him in the work. As each sign in the Inscription, or its traces, in all three versions has been carefully examined on the Rock itself, many doubtful readings have been cleared up and several lacunae filled. On the other hand, some signs, which were quite clear at the time when Sir Henry Rawlinson made his copies, have now entirely disappeared, and these have been here restored and are placed within brackets. With a view of making the work as useful as possible to students, renderings in English, accompanied by a series of transliterations, have been added.
The plates have been made from photographs taken on the spot, and in them we have, for the first time, faithful representations of the god Auramazda, Darius and his attendants, and the rebel chiefs, sculptured on the Rock of Behistûn.
This edition is the work of Mr. L. W. King and Mr. R. C. Thompson, and the prefatory remarks have been drawn up by Mr. King and myself.
Department of Egyptian and Assyrian
Antiquities, British Museum,
January 24, 1907.