Old Persian cuneiform
Escritura cuneiforme persa antigua
- Date
- c. 520 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Behistun, Kermanshah, Iran
- Credited to
- Darius I and his scribes
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A semi-syllabary of 36 cuneiform signs created to write Old Persian in Achaemenid royal inscriptions. It is very different from Mesopotamian cuneiform and was the key to deciphering the latter.
It is debated whether it was created under Darius I (most accepted) or already existed under Cyrus II; the Behistun inscription is its first great witness.
What it led to
- the trilingual inscriptions of Behistun, Persepolis and Naqsh-e Rostam
- decipherment of cuneiform by Grotefend and Rawlinson
- written propaganda of Achaemenid power