Behistun inscription: description, content, history and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:53

The Behistun inscription is a trilingual text carved on the Behistun rock, which is located in Iran, southwest of Ekbatan. The text was created by sculptors at the behest of King Darius and tells about the events from 523 to 521 BC. The inscription is carved in Akkadian, Elamite and Persian. This is one of the largest monuments of antiquity, which was translated only in the 30s of the XIX century by the English scientist Rawlinson. The translation of this text marked the beginning of the deciphering and translation of texts of many peoples of the ancient East. What is the Behistun inscription? What does she represent? What does it look like? What is its content? What is her story? The mysterious inscription on the Behistun rock will be discussed in our article.

What the Behistun inscription of Darius the Great looks like

The inscription is carved on the territory of Media at a height of about 105 meters. Its dimensions are about 22 meters wide and 7 meters high.

The inscription is accompanied by a bas-relief depicting King Darius under the auspices of the Persian god Ahuramazda. Darius meets his defeated enemies. It is in the Behistun inscription that the very first mention of the god Ahuramazda is found.

The rock below the inscription is carved vertically and made almost impregnable.

Above the text on the bas-relief, the god Ahuramazda is depicted, who extends his hand to Darius, thereby blessing him and, as it were, transferring royal power to him. Darius is depicted in the royal crown, his figure is life-size. His right hand is outstretched to God, with his left he leans on a bow. With his left foot, King Darius tramples the defeated Gaumata, who seized power by fraudulent means. Behind the fallen man stands eight more of his subjects and faithful servants, their hands are tied behind their backs, they are all bound in one chain. Behind King Darius are two of his devoted warriors.

The text is located on the sides of the bas-relief.

How the inscription has survived to this day

You can only see the bas-relief and the inscription from a long distance, since more than 25 centuries ago, the ancient sculptors, when they finished their work, destroyed all the stone steps behind them, so that the descendants would have no opportunity to climb up to the monument and modify or destroy it. Perhaps that is why the Behistun inscription has survived quite well. But there is another side of the coin. After a while, people forgot what was depicted there, what historical events. For example, the ancient Greek geographer Ctesias in the 5th century BC called the Behistun rock relief a monument to Queen Semiramis.

Cuneiform content

Ancientthe text begins with a brief biography of King Darius the Great, who ascended the throne in 522 BC. The following tells about the military campaign in Egypt Cambyses and the events associated with it. Cambyses, according to the inscription, before going on a campaign against the Egyptians, ordered to kill his brother Bardia. But at this time, a certain magician Gaumata seized the throne, posing as Bardiya (it is not known for certain where Bardiya himself went). Cambyses dies in Persia, and the power of Gaumata is recognized by all countries of the huge Persian state.

But seven months later he is secretly murdered in his own palace. And one of the conspirators, Darius, becomes king. He proclaims himself the ruler and attributes his success to the help and blessing of the god Ahura Mazda.

These events are mentioned by Herodotus and many ancient Greek historians and philosophers, however, their narratives differ from the version set forth in the Bahistun inscription.

Many contemporary historians believe that Darius was very eager for power and wanted to be king at all costs, and that he killed Bardia, declaring him a priest Gaumata. We are unlikely to be able to find out this question now, it will forever remain a historical mystery.

The text of the wall inscription consists of four columns written in three languages, the fifth column is written in Old Persian:

• text in Old Persian consists of 414 lines in 5 columns;
• text in Elamite includes 593 lines in 8 columns;
• Akkadian text - 112 lines.

AuthorsThe Behistun inscription remained unknown for history, it is for certain established that it belongs to the 6th century BC.

Misconceptions of ancient men regarding the inscription

In the 4th century BC, the dynasty of the descendants of Darius fell. Gradually, the old rock cuneiform was also forgotten, although the inscription remained, causing a lot of questions. The most unusual explanations appeared that had nothing to do with historical reality.

For example, for several centuries it was believed that this rock writing was created by sculptors during the period of the Sasanian kings, who lived 1000 years before the time of King Darius.

In the 5th century BC, the ancient Greek geographer Ctesias believed that the inscription was dedicated to Queen Semiramis.

The ancient Roman historian Tacitus claimed that this was part of a monument dedicated to Hercules.

Age of Wonderful Discoveries - 16th century AD

At the end of the 16th century, this amazing rock inscription was seen by the Englishman Shirley Robert, who was on a diplomatic mission. European scientists learned about the historical bas-relief from him.

Many believed that this is an image of Jesus Christ and the 12 apostles.

Misconceptions continued into the Middle Ages of our era. So, the Scottish traveler Porter Ker Robert suggested that the monument belongs to the tribe of Israel from Assyria.

Work on the translation of the Behistun inscription

So many experts tried to decipher the text. However, completelythe British officer, Rawlinson Henry, managed to understand what was written. In 1835, he was sent to Iran on duty, where he began to scrupulously study cuneiform. After three years of hard work on the text, he translated the Old Persian language of the inscription. Henry reported his successful results to the Royal Society in London.

In 1843 the Elamite and Akkadian languages were deciphered. A whole team of specialists worked under the leadership of Rawlinson. All these scientific researches laid the foundation for the development of Assyriology.

However, the full text, including those passages that were not copied by Rawlinson, was translated only in the middle of the 20th century.

Copies of the inscription

The text of the mysterious inscription is written in three languages:

• in Old Persian, native language of Darius;
• in Akkadian, spoken by the Assyrians and Babylonians;
• in Elamite, it was spoken by the ancient peoples who lived in the southwestern regions of Iran.

But this text was translated into many other ancient languages in ancient times, and translations were sent to many states. This is how copies of the Behistun inscription appeared.

For example, one of these ancient papyri was preserved in Egypt, the text is written in Aramaic, the official language of the state.

A block was found in Babylon with a text carved in Akkadian, repeating the essence of the Behistun inscription.

A large number of copies of the inscription indicates that Darius launched a large propaganda activity, whichimplemented in all major languages of the Persian Empire. He tried to impose his interpretation of events on the entire civilized ancient world.

20th century and ancient historical inscription

In the 20th century, interest in cuneiform writing on Mount Behistun did not subside. With the development of technology, by the end of the 20th century, scientists took two-dimensional photographs of the inscription and its three-dimensional images.

At the beginning of the 21st century, Iranian archaeologists carried out work on the improvement of the adjacent territory to the historical monument.

In 2006, the Behistun inscription in Iran received UNESCO World Heritage status.

This is such an interesting and mysterious fate of the ancient creation of Persian sculptors, who were given the task of immortalizing Darius the Great and his deeds, with which they very successfully coped.