Bistun

UNESCO World Heritage Site
The Behistun Inscription photographed in 2019
Location	Mount Behistun, Kermanshah Province, Iran
Criteria	Cultural: ii, iii
Reference	1222
Inscription	2006 (30th Session)
Area	187 ha
Buffer zone	361 ha
Coordinates	34°23′26″N 47°26′9″E / 34.39056°N 47.43583°E / 34.39056; 47.43583
Location of Behistun Inscription in West and Central Asia Show map of West and Central Asia Behistun Inscription (Iran) Show map of Iran

The Behistun Inscription (also spelled Bisotun, Bisitun or Bisutun; Persian: بیستون, Old Persian: Bagastana, meaning "the place of god") is a multilingual Achaemenid royal inscription and large rock relief, produced during the reign of Darius I the Great (r. 522–486 BC). It is carved on a cliff at Mount Behistun in the Kermanshah Province of modern Iran. The inscription was important to the decipherment of cuneiform, because it is the longest known cuneiform text recorded in multiple languages, being written in Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian (a variety of Akkadian). It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.^[1]

Written in the form of a speech by Darius, the inscription begins with a brief autobiography, including Darius' claimed ancestry and lineage. The inscription describes a lengthy sequence of events during the upheaval following the death of Darius' predecessor, Cambyses II. It states that a series of rebellions were orchestrated in various cities throughout the empire, by several impostors who falsely proclaimed themselves king. Darius claims he fought and won nineteen battles in a period of one year to secure the Achaemenid Empire, attributing his success to the "grace of Ahura Mazda". Based on other sources, modern historians conclude that Darius was actually a usurper who overthrew the legitimate successor of Cambyses II, so the inscription is a form of propaganda intended to legitimize Darius' rule.

The inscription and associated relief are approximately 15 m (49 ft) high by 25 m (82 ft) wide. The Old Persian text contains 414 lines in five columns; the Elamite text includes 260 lines in eight columns, and the Babylonian text is 112 lines.^[2][3] The inscription is illustrated by a life-sized bas-relief of Darius the Great and twelve other figures.

The date of the inscription is uncertain. The coronation of Darius occurred in the summer of 522 BC, and the series of military victories described in the inscription implies that the campaign ended in December 521 BC. The inscription could have been produced at any point between then and the death of Darius in autumn of 486 BC, but is more likely to have been in the first few years of his reign. A later fragmentary copy of the text in imperial Aramaic, produced about a century later during the reign of the (unrelated) Darius II (r. 423–404 BC), has been found in Egypt.^[4]

Pre-translation history

Elamite cuneiform fell into disuse c. 400 BC, and after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire in 330 BC Old Persian cuneiform also died out. Babylonian cuneiform persisted for longer, with the last surviving examples being from c. 75 BC. After this point, the inscription was no longer understood by contemporary observers and its purpose was forgotten.

The inscription is mentioned by the Greek traveller Ctesias of Cnidus around 400 BC; modern historians regard Ctesias as an unreliable source. He states that a well and a garden were located beneath the inscription. Ctesias incorrectly concluded that the inscription had been dedicated by Semiramis of Babylon (a semi-legendary ruler) to Zeus. The Hellenistic historian Diodorus also mentions "Bagistanon" in his writing, but repeats Ctesias' incorrect claim that the inscription was produced by Semiramis.

The Roman historian Tacitus mentions the inscription and describes the presence (in the first century AD) of ancillary monuments at the base of the cliff, including an altar to Herakles. Modern archaeology of the site, including the discovery of a Hellenistic statue dedicated in 148 BC, is consistent with Tacitus's description.

For several centuries, the inscription was misattributed to the reign of the Sassanid king Khosrau II (590 to 628 AD), who lived over 1000 years after Darius the Great.

In 1598, Englishman Robert Sherley saw the inscription during a diplomatic mission to Safavid Persia on behalf of the Habsburg monarchy, and subsequently brought it to the attention of scholars in western Europe. His party incorrectly concluded that the inscription was Christian in origin.^[5] Italian explorer Pietro della Valle visited the inscription in 1604 and made drawings of the monument.^[6] German surveyor Carsten Niebuhr visited in around 1764, exploring for Frederick V of Denmark. Niebuhr recorded the (then unintelligible) text of the inscription, leading to its first publication in 1778 in his account of his journeys.^[7]

In the early 19th century, the French ambassador to Persia Claude Matthieu, Count Gardane thought it showed "Christ and his twelve apostles", and a decade later the British traveller Robert Ker Porter thought it represented the Lost Tribes of Israel and Shalmaneser of Assyria.^[8]

Layout and appearance

Details of Darius

The inscription and associated relief is approximately 15 m (49 ft) high by 25 m (82 ft) wide. It is carved into a limestone cliff, 100 m (330 ft) above an ancient road that connected the capitals of Babylonia and Media (Babylon and Ecbatana, respectively). The location is difficult to access, with modern explorers having to climb the sheer cliff face and traverse a narrow ledge. Reaching the Elamite part of the inscription requires jumping across a chasm. This inaccessible location, combined with the dry desert environment, may have aided the preservation of the inscription.

The bas-relief depicts Darius and twelve other figures. Darius is shown facing right and larger than the other figures, approximately life-size, holding a bow in his left hand as a sign of kingship. His right hand is raised, and he wears a crown. Darius' left foot is on the chest of a figure lying on his back before him. The supine figure is not named, but usually identified as Gaumata, one of the pretenders discussed in the text. On the left of Darius are two servants, also facing to the right, carrying a bow and a spear. To the right of Darius, facing towards him, are nine smaller figures representing conquered peoples. These are smaller, approximately 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) tall, shown with their hands tied and a rope around their necks, which ties them all together. One figure^[which?] appears to have been added after the others were completed. So was Darius's beard, which consists of a separate block of stone attached with iron pins and lead. A Faravahar (Zoroastrian winged spirit) is depicted in front of and slightly above Darius, giving its blessing to the king.

The cuneiform text is inscribed above, below, and to the right of the figures. Some of its layout is haphazard, as if not originally planned as part of the monument, being instead added to whatever blank regions could be found after the bas-relief was completed. The Old Persian text contains 414 lines in five columns; the Elamite text includes 260 lines in eight columns, and the Babylonian text is in 112 lines.^[9][10]

Translation of the text

Georg Friedrich Grotefend and others attempted to decipher the Old Persian cuneiform script, using Niebuhr's transcriptions as their main source. By 1802, Grotefend had deciphered ten of the 37 symbols of Old Persian, after realizing that unlike the Semitic cuneiform scripts, Old Persian text is alphabetic and each word is separated by a vertical slanted symbol.^[11]

The Old Persian text was copied and deciphered before recovery and copying of the Elamite and Babylonian inscriptions had even been attempted, which proved to be a good deciphering strategy, since Old Persian script was easier to study due to its alphabetic nature and because the language it represents had naturally evolved via Middle Persian to the living modern Persian language dialects, and was also related to the Avestan language, used in the Zoroastrian book the Avesta.

In 1835, Sir Henry Rawlinson, an officer of the British East India Company army assigned to the forces of the Shah of Iran, began studying the inscription in earnest. As the town of Bisotun's name was anglicized as "Behistun" at this time, the monument became known as the "Behistun Inscription". Despite its relative inaccessibility, Rawlinson was able to scale the cliff with the help of a local boy and copy the Old Persian inscription. The Elamite was across a chasm, and the Babylonian four meters above; both were beyond easy reach and were left for later.^[12]

With the Persian text, and with about a third of the syllabary made available to him by the work of Georg Friedrich Grotefend, Rawlinson set to work on deciphering the text.^[12] The first section of this text contained a list of the same Persian kings found in Herodotus but in their original Persian forms as opposed to Herodotus's Greek transliterations; for example Darius is given as the original Dâryavuš instead of the Hellenized Δαρειος. By matching the names and the characters, Rawlinson deciphered the type of cuneiform used for Old Persian by 1838 and presented his results to the Royal Asiatic Society in London and the Société Asiatique in Paris.

In the interim, Rawlinson spent a brief tour of duty in Afghanistan, returning to the site in 1843. This time he crossed the chasm between the Persian and Elamite scripts by bridging the gap with planks, subsequently copying the Elamite inscription. He found an enterprising local boy to climb up a crack in the cliff and suspend ropes across the Babylonian writing, so that papier-mâché casts of the inscriptions could be taken. In 1847, he sent a full and accurate copy to Europe.^[12]

Rawlinson, along with several other scholars, most notably Edward Hincks, Julius Oppert, William Henry Fox Talbot, and Edwin Norris, either working separately or in collaboration, eventually deciphered these inscriptions, leading eventually to the ability to read them completely. The translation of the Old Persian sections of the Behistun Inscription paved the way to the subsequent ability to decipher the Elamite and Babylonian parts of the text, which greatly promoted the development of modern Assyriology.

Later research and activity

The site was visited by the American linguist A. V. Williams Jackson in 1903.^[13] Later expeditions, in 1904 sponsored by the British Museum and led by Leonard William King and Reginald Campbell Thompson and in 1948 by George G. Cameron of the University of Michigan, obtained photographs, casts and more accurate transcriptions of the texts, including passages that were not copied by Rawlinson.^{[14][15][16][17]} It also became apparent that rainwater had dissolved some areas of the limestone in which the text was inscribed, while leaving new deposits of limestone over other areas, covering the text.

In 1938, the inscription became of interest to the Nazi German think tank Ahnenerbe, although research plans were cancelled due to the onset of World War II.

The monument later suffered some damage from Allied soldiers using it for target practice in World War II, and during the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran.^[18]

In 1999, Iranian archeologists began the documentation and assessment of damages to the site incurred during the 20th century. Malieh Mehdiabadi, who was project manager for the effort, described a photogrammetric process by which two-dimensional photos were taken of the inscriptions using two cameras and later transmuted into 3-D images.^[19]

In recent years, Iranian archaeologists have been undertaking conservation works. The site became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006.^[20]

In 2012, the Bisotun Cultural Heritage Center organized an international effort to re-examine the inscription.^[21]

Content of the inscription

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Full translation of the Behistun Inscription

Lineage

In the first section of the inscription, Darius the Great declares his ancestry and lineage:

King Darius says: My father is Hystaspes [Vištâspa]; the father of Hystaspes was Arsames [Aršâma]; the father of Arsames was Ariaramnes [Ariyâramna]; the father of Ariaramnes was Teispes [Cišpiš]; the father of Teispes was Achaemenes [Haxâmaniš]. King Darius says: That is why we are called Achaemenids; from antiquity we have been noble; from antiquity has our dynasty been royal. King Darius says: Eight of my dynasty were kings before me; I am the ninth. Nine in succession we have been kings.

King Darius says: By the grace of Ahuramazda am I king; Ahuramazda has granted me the kingdom.

Territories

Darius also lists the territories under his rule:

King Darius says: These are the countries which are subject unto me, and by the grace of Ahuramazda I became king of them: Persia [Pârsa], Elam [Ûvja], Babylonia [Bâbiruš], Assyria [Athurâ], Arabia [Arabâya], Egypt [Mudrâya], the countries by the Sea [Tyaiy Drayahyâ (Phoenicia)], Lydia [Sparda], Ionia [Yauna], Media [Mâda], Armenia [Armina], Cappadocia [Katpatuka], Parthia [Parthava], Drangiana [Zraka], Aria [Haraiva], Chorasmia [Uvârazmîy], Bactria [Bâxtriš], Sogdia [Suguda], Gandhara [Gadâra], Scythia [Saka], Sattagydia [Thataguš], Arachosia [Harauvatiš] and Maka [Maka]; twenty-three lands in all.

Conflicts and revolts

Later in the inscription, Darius provides an eye-witness account of battles he successfully fought over a one-year period to put down rebellions which had resulted from the deaths of Cyrus the Great, and his son Cambyses II:

• 
  Relief of ššina c. 519 BC: "This is ššina. He lied, saying "I am king of Elam.""^[22]
• 
  Relief of Nidintu-Bêl: "This is Nidintu-Bêl. He lied, saying "I am Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabonidus. I am king of Babylon.""^[22]
• 

  Relief of Tritantaechmes: "This is Tritantaechmes. He lied, saying "I am king of Sagartia, from the family of Cyaxares.""^[22]

• 

  Relief of Arakha: "This is Arakha. He lied, saying: "I am Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabonidus. I am king in Babylon.""^[22]

• 

  Relief of Frâda: "This is Frâda. He lied, saying "I am king of Margiana.""^[22]

• 

  Behistun relief of Skunkha. Label: "This is Skunkha the Sacan."^[22]

Other historical monuments in the Behistun complex

The site covers an area of 116 hectares. Archeological evidence indicates that this region became a human shelter 40,000 years ago. There are 18 historical monuments other than the inscription of Darius the Great in the Behistun complex that have been registered in the Iranian national list of historical sites. Some of them are:

• 

  Statue of Herakles in Behistun complex

• 

  Herakles at Behistun, sculpted for a Seleucis Governor in 148 BC.

• 

  Bas relief of Mithridates II of Parthia and bas relief of Gotarzes II of Parthia and Sheikh Ali khan Zangeneh text endowment

• 

  Damaged equestrian relief of Gotarzes II at Behistun

• 

  Vologases's relief in Behistun

Similar reliefs and inspiration

The Anubanini rock relief, also called Sarpol-i Zohab, of the Lullubi king Anubanini, dated to c. 2300 BC, and which is located not far from the Behistun reliefs at Sarpol-e Zahab, is very similar to the reliefs at Behistun. The attitude of the ruler, the trampling of an enemy, the lines of prisoners are all very similar, to such extent that it was said that the sculptors of the Behistun Inscription had probably seen the Anubanini relief beforehand and were inspired by it.^[23] The Lullubian reliefs were the model for the Behistun reliefs of Darius the Great.^[24]

The inscriptional tradition of the Achaemenids, starting especially with Darius I, is thought to have derived from the traditions of Elam, Lullubi, the Babylonians and the Assyrians.^[25]