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WonderLanguage factContext and sources

Around 520 BC, Darius the Great had the same proclamation carved into a Persian cliff face in three scripts. Millennia later, Henry Rawlinson copied it while dangling from ladders and ropes — and the trilingual text unlocked cuneiform.

Behistun, Iran

HistoryLanguage

Why it matters

The idea in context

The inscription sits dozens of metres up the rock at Bisotun in western Iran, placed for the gods and posterity rather than passing readers. Rawlinson worked on the ledges through the 1830s and 1840s; for the most inaccessible panel, a local Kurdish boy scaled the cliff to press papier-mâché moulds of the signs. Once the Old Persian yielded, the other two scripts followed, and with them whole libraries of Mesopotamia — law codes, epics, shopping lists — began to speak again.

Türkçe

Aynı kart, başka bir dilde.

MÖ 520 dolayında Büyük Darius, aynı bildiriyi bir Pers kayalığına üç ayrı yazıyla kazıttı. Binyıllar sonra Henry Rawlinson metni merdivenlerden ve halatlardan sarkarak kopyaladı — ve üç dilli yazıt çivi yazısının kilidini açtı.
Behistun Yazıtı

Yazıt, Batı İran'daki Bisotun'da kayanın onlarca metre yukarısındadır; gelip geçen okurlar için değil, tanrılar ve gelecek kuşaklar için yerleştirilmiştir. Rawlinson 1830'lar ve 40'lar boyunca çıkıntılarda çalıştı; en erişilmez panel için Kürt bir çocuk kayaya tırmanıp işaretlerin kartonpiyer kalıplarını çıkardı. Eski Persçe çözülünce öbür iki yazı da ardından geldi — ve onlarla birlikte Mezopotamya'nın koca kitaplıkları, yasalar, destanlar, alışveriş listeleri yeniden konuşmaya başladı.

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Background reading: Behistun InscriptionAttribution and context are revised when stronger evidence appears. Corrections are welcome through the editorial page.
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