Behistun inscription
Trilingual Persian carving
The Behistun inscription is an ancient multilingual carving on a cliff face in western Iran, commissioned by the Persian king Darius I around 500 BCE.
Written in Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian, it proved crucial for deciphering cuneiform script—serving a role for ancient Near Eastern languages similar to the Rosetta Stone for Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Also spelled Bisitun or Bisotun.
- trilingualSpeaking three languages
- reliefEasing of distress
- kingMale crowned ruler
- Persian WarsHellenic-Achaemenid military conflicts
- PersepolisAchaemenid Empire's grand capital
Proto-Iranian · carving · monument · glyph · Babylon · script · cuneiform · Akkadian · rock · Zoroastrianism · conquest · ropes · empire · mountainside · royal · climbing · Mesopotamia · scholars
- Ancient PersiaPersepolis, Cyrus the Great, Xerxes, satrap, satraps
- inscriptionsepitaph, ancient inscriptions, stone inscriptions, gravestone, rock inscriptions
- Persian artifactsroyal seals, winged bull, court scenes, cuneiform tablets
- Persian inscriptionscuneiform, rock inscriptions, royal edicts, Persepolis, Darius
- cuneiformcuneiform, cuneiform script, clay tablet, stylus, clay tablets
- stone reliefsbas-relief, high relief, raised relief, sunken relief, frieze