Behistun Inscription
34.38833333333347.436666666667Koordinaten: 34 ° 23 ' 18 "N, 47 ° 26' 12" E
The Behistun inscription takes its name from the village of Behistun ( Behistun ), which lies about 30 km east of Kermanshah in Iran. The inscription was added to the UNESCO list of world heritage in 2006.
In a rocky cliff at high altitude the Achämenidenkönig Darius I let the pictures of kings carved on front of shackled prisoners. About the representation of floating Faravahar, the symbol of Zoroastrianism ( some scholars, however, believe the " wingman " symbolizing the "lucky gloss " of the king). To this end, let Darius a trilingual plaque, in the Old Persian languages , Elamite and Babylonian install. The Trilingue was from 1835 (Amendments 1844 and 1847 ) for the first time completely copied by Henry Rawlinson and Creswicke / Published 1847 47 ( Old Persian version) and 1851 ( Babylonian version). What is the Rosetta stone for deciphering the Egyptian hieroglyphs, was the trilingual Behistun inscription of the Assyrian cuneiform. So that the last outstanding issues could be resolved in the decipherment of cuneiform.
The text describes Darius ' version of his rise: As a relative of his predecessor Cyrus II and Cambyses II, he had brought against the lean Gaumata who had been posing as the brother of Cambyses; after the murder of Gaumata he himself has become the new Great King, and have prevailed in the subsequent period against a number of "lying kings ". The inscription is obviously the legitimacy of the new ruler, who may have been a usurper.
According to his own statement Darius I left the Old Persian cuneiform script, in which the deeds report is written, among other things, develop specifically for this inscription. If one accepts this statement - and most scholars see no reason to doubt them - so Darius gave so unintentionally virtually self to prove that he had no right to the throne: the only inscription in which Cyrus II, the empire builders, with the Darius claimed to be related, himself described as " Achaemenid ", comes from Pasargadae and is written in Old Persian cuneiform: has this been invented under Darius, as is obvious, that the alleged Cyrus inscription is a forgery, which was most likely made on behalf of Darius to make Cyrus artificially to a member of his own family, the Achaemenids. If so, as Darius was ultimately a usurper, who sought to legitimize his rule retroactively.
Fragments of an Aramaic copy of the Behistun inscription found among the Aramaic papyri on the island of Elephantine (Egypt ), where a Jewish military colony in the 5th century BC was in the service of the Achaemenids. In addition, fragments of a stela with the Babylonian version of the Behistun inscription in the main castle ( Qasr ) of Babylon were found.