Decipherment of cuneiform
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File:Old Persian alphabet according to Grotefend.jpg. Initially published in 1815.{{cite book |last1=Heeren |first1=Arnold Hermann Ludwig |title=Ideen über die Politik, den Verkehr und den Handel der vornehmsten Völker der alten Welt |date=1815 |publisher=Bey Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht |page=562 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JQ0PAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA562 |language=de}} Grotefend only identified correctly eight letters among the thirty signs he had collated.{{cite book |title=The Persian Cuneiform Inscription at Behistun: Decyphered and Tr.; with a Memoir on Persian Cuneiform Inscriptions in General, and on that of Behistun in Particular |date=1846 |publisher=J.W. Parker |page=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8spIAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA6 |language=en}}]]
The decipherment of cuneiform began with the decipherment of Old Persian cuneiform between 1802 and 1836.
The first cuneiform inscriptions published in modern times were copied from the Achaemenid royal inscriptions in the ruins of Persepolis, with the first complete and accurate copy being published in 1778 by Carsten Niebuhr. Niebuhr's publication was used by Grotefend in 1802 to make the first breakthrough – the realization that Niebuhr had published three different languages side by side and the recognition of the word "king".{{cite book | last=Sayce | first=A.H. | title=The Archaeology of the Cuneiform Inscriptions | publisher=Cambridge University Press | series=Cambridge Library Collection - Archaeology | year=2019 | isbn=978-1-108-08239-6 | url=https://archive.org/details/archaeologyofcun00sayc | access-date=2023-03-19 | page=}}
The rediscovery and publication of cuneiform took place in the early 17th century, and early conclusions were drawn such as the writing direction and that the Achaemenid royal inscriptions are three different languages (with two different scripts). In 1620, García de Silva Figueroa dated the inscriptions of Persepolis to the Achaemenid period, identified them as Old Persian, and concluded that the ruins were the ancient residence of Persepolis. In 1621, Pietro della Valle specified the direction of writing from left to right. In 1762, Jean-Jacques Barthélemy found that an inscription in Persepolis resembled that found on a brick in Babylon. Carsten Niebuhr made the first copies of the inscriptions of Persepolis in 1778 and settled on three different types of writing, which subsequently became known as Niebuhr I, II and III. He was the first to discover the sign for a word division in one of the scriptures. Oluf Gerhard Tychsen was the first to list 24 phonetic or alphabetic values for the characters in 1798.
Actual decipherment did not take place until the beginning of the 19th century, initiated by Georg Friedrich Grotefend in his study of Old Persian cuneiform. He was followed by Antoine-Jean Saint-Martin in 1822 and Rasmus Christian Rask in 1823, who was the first to decipher the name Achaemenides and the consonants m and n. Eugène Burnouf identified the names of various satrapies and the consonants k and z in 1833–1835. Christian Lassen contributed significantly to the grammatical understanding of the Old Persian language and the use of vowels. The decipherers used the short trilingual inscriptions from Persepolis and the inscriptions from Ganjnāme for their work.
In a final step, the decipherment of the trilingual Behistun inscription was completed by Henry Rawlinson and Edward Hincks. Edward Hincks discovered that Old Persian is partly a syllabary.
Early knowledge
{{multiple image
|image1=Comentarios de don García de Silva que contienen su viaje a la India y de ella a Persia cosas notables que vió en él y los sucesos de la embajada al Sophi Manuscrito 559.jpg
|image2= Pietro Della Valle katibe mikhi.png
|caption1=García de Silva Figueroa (1620)
|caption2=Pietro Della Valle (1621)
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|footer=The first cuneiform inscriptions published in modern times, both copied from Achaemenid royal inscriptions in Persepolis in the early 17th century. Pietro Della Valle's inscription, today known as XPb, is from the Palace of Xerxes.{{cite book | last=Potts | first=D.T. | title=The Archaeology of Elam: Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State | publisher=Cambridge University Press | series=Cambridge World Archaeology | year=2016 | isbn=978-1-107-09469-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WE62CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA7 | access-date=2023-03-25 | page=7}}
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For centuries, travelers to Persepolis, located in Iran, had noticed carved cuneiform inscriptions and were intrigued.Sayce 1908. Attempts at deciphering Old Persian cuneiform date back to Arabo-Persian historians of the medieval Islamic world, though these early attempts at decipherment were largely unsuccessful.{{Cite book|title=Egyptology: The Missing Millennium : Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings|first=Okasha|last=El Daly|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=978-1-84472-063-7|pages=39–40 & 65}}
In the 15th century, the Venetian Giosafat Barbaro explored ancient ruins in the Middle East and came back with news of a very odd writing he had found carved on the stones in the temples of Shiraz and on many clay tablets.
Antonio de Gouvea, a professor of theology, noted in 1602 the strange writing he had seen during his travels a year earlier in Persia.C. Wade Meade, [https://books.google.com/books?id=iuAUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA5 Road to Babylon: Development of U.S. Assyriology,] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161219091553/https://books.google.com/books?id=iuAUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA5 |date=December 19, 2016 }} Brill Archive, 1974 p.5.See:
- Gouvea, Antonio de, Relaçam em que se tratam as guerras e grandes vitórias que alcançou o grande Rey de Persia Xá Abbas, do grão Turco Mahometo, e seu Filho Amethe ... [An account in which are treated the wars and great victories that were attained by the great king of Persia Shah Abbas against the great Turk Mehmed and his son, Ahmed ... ] (Lisbon, Portugal: Pedro Crasbeeck, 1611), [https://books.google.com/books?id=gY9mAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA32 p. 32.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320153206/https://books.google.com/books?id=gY9mAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA32 |date=March 20, 2018 }} [in Portuguese]
- French translation: Gouvea, Antonio de, with Alexis de Meneses, trans., Relation des grandes guerres et victoires obtenues par le roy de Perse Cha Abbas contre les empereurs de Turquie Mahomet et Achmet son fils, ... (Rouen, France: Nicolas Loyselet, 1646), [https://books.google.com/books?id=TcypEWd4iIIC&pg=PA81 pp. 81–82.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320153206/https://books.google.com/books?id=TcypEWd4iIIC&pg=PA81 |date=March 20, 2018 }} [in French] From pp. 81–82: "Peu esloigné de là estoit la sepulture de la Royne, qui estoit fort peu differente. L'escriture qui donnoit cognoissance par qui, pourquoy, & en quel temps cest grande masse avoit esté bastie est fort distincte en plusieurs endroits du bastiment: mais il n'y a personne qui y entende rien, parce que les carracteres ne sont Persiens, Arabes, Armeniens ny Hebreux, qui sont les langages aujourd'hui en usage en ces quartiers là, ... " (Not far from there [i.e., Persepolis or "Chelminira"] was the sepulchre of the queen, which wasn't much different. The writing that announced by whom, why, and at what time this great mass had been built, is very distinct in several locations in the building: but there wasn't anyone who understood it, because the characters were neither Persian, Arabic, Armenian, nor Hebrew, which are the languages in use today in those quarters ... )In 1619, Spain's ambassador to Persia, García de Silva Figueroa (1550–1624), sent a letter to the Marquesse of Bedmar, discussing various subjects regarding Persia, including his observations on the cuneiform inscriptions at Persepolis. This letter was originally printed in 1620:
- Figueroa, Garcia Silva, Garciae Silva Figueroa ... de Rebus Persarum epistola v. Kal. an. M.DC.XIX Spahani exarata ad Marchionem Bedmari (Antwerp, (Belgium): 1620), 16 pages. [in Latin].
It was translated into English and reprinted in 1625 by Samuel Purchas, who included it in a collection of letters and other writings concerning travel and exploration:
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=XRZZAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA533 "Letter from Don Garcia Silva Figueroa Embassador from Philip the Third King of Spain, to the Persian, Written at Spahan, or Hispahan Anno 1619 to the Marquese Bedmar Touching Matters of Persia,"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320153206/https://books.google.com/books?id=XRZZAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA533 |date=March 20, 2018 }} in: Purchas, Samuel, Purchas His Pilgrimes (London, England: William Stansby, 1625), vol. 2, book IX, Chap. XI, pp. 1533–1535.
That English translation was reprinted in 1905:
- Figueroa, Don Garcia Silva, [https://archive.org/stream/hakluytusposthum09purc#page/190/mode/2up "Chap. XI. Letter from Don Garcia Silva Figueroa Embassador from Philip the Third King of Spain, to the Persian, Written at Spahan, or Hispahan Anno 1619 to the Marquese Bedmar Touching Matters of Persia,"] in Purchas, Samuel, Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes, ... (Glasgow, Scotland: James MacLehose and Sons, 1905), vol. 9, pp. 190–196. On pp. 192–193, Figueroa describes the cuneiform at Persepolis: "The Letters themselves are neither Chaldæan, nor Hebrew, nor Greek, nor Arabic, nor of any other Nation, which was ever found of old, or at this day, to be extant. They are all three-cornered, but somewhat long, of the forme of a Pyramide, or such a little Obeliske, as I have set in the margine: so that in nothing doe they differ one from another, but in their placing and situation, yet so conformed that they are wondrous plaine distinct and perspicuous." In 1625, the Roman traveler Pietro Della Valle, who had sojourned in Mesopotamia between 1616 and 1621, brought to Europe copies of characters he had seen in Persepolis and inscribed bricks from Ur and the ruins of Babylon.{{cite book|last1=Hilprecht|first1=Hermann Vollrat|title=The Excavations in Assyria and Babylonia|date=1904|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-02564-5|page=17|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101073396747;view=1up;seq=45}}Pallis, Svend Aage (1954) "Early exploration in Mesopotamia, with a list of the Assyro-Babylonian cuneiform texts published before 1851," Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab: Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser (The Royal Danish Society of Science: Historical-philological Communications), 33 (6) : 1–58; see p. 10. Available at: [http://www.royalacademy.dk/Publications/Low/613_Pallis,%20Svend%20Aage.pdf Royal Danish Society of Science] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171006113327/http://www.royalacademy.dk/Publications/Low/613_Pallis,%20Svend%20Aage.pdf |date=October 6, 2017 }} The copies he made, the first that reached circulation within Europe, were not quite accurate, but Della Valle understood that the writing had to be read from left to right, following the direction of wedges. However, he did not attempt to decipher the scripts.Valle, Pietro della, Viaggi di Pietro della Valle, Il Pellegrino [The journeys of Pietro della Valle, the pilgrim] (Brighton, England: G. Gancia, 1843), vol. 2, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015014139722;view=1up;seq=263 pp. 252–253.] From p. 253: "Mi da indizio che possa scriversi dalla sinistra alla destra al modo nostro, ... " (It indicates to me that it [i.e., cuneiform] might be written from left to right in our way, ... )
Englishman Sir Thomas Herbert, in the 1638 edition of his travel book Some Yeares Travels into Africa & Asia the Great, reported seeing at Persepolis carved on the wall "a dozen lines of strange characters...consisting of figures, obelisk, triangular, and pyramidal" and thought they resembled Greek.Herbert, Thomas, Some Yeares Travels into Africa & Asia the Great. ... (London, England: R. Bishop, 1638), [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015078546473;view=1up;seq=161 pp. 145–146.] From pages 145–146: "In part of this great roome [i.e., in the palace at Persepolis] (not farre from the portall) in a mirrour of polisht marble, wee noted above a dozen lynes of strange characters, very faire and apparent to the eye, but so mysticall, so odly framed, as no Hierogliphick, no other deep conceit can be more difficultly fancied, more adverse to the intellect. These consisting of Figures, obelisk, triangular, and pyramidall, yet in such Simmetry and order as cannot well be called barbarous. Some resemblance, I thought some words had of the Antick Greek, shadowing out Ahashuerus Theos. And though it have small concordance with the Hebrew, Greek, or Latine letter, yet questionless to the Inventer it was well knowne; and peradventure may conceale some excellent matter, though to this day wrapt up in the dim leafes of envious obscuritie." In the 1677 edition he reproduced some and thought they were 'legible and intelligible' and therefore decipherable. He also guessed, correctly, that they represented not letters or hieroglyphics but words and syllables, and were to be read from left to right.Herbert, Sir Thomas, Some Years Travels into Divers Parts of Africa and Asia the Great, 4th ed. (London, England: R. Everingham, 1677), [https://books.google.com/books?id=PFlOAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA141 pp. 141–142.] From p. 141: " ... albeit I rather incline to the first [possibility], and that they comprehended words or syllables, as in Brachyography or Short-writing we familiarly practise: ... Nevertheless, by the posture and tendency of some of the Characters (which consist of several magnitudes) it may be supposed that this writing was rather from the left hand to the right, ... " Page 142 shows an illustration of some cuneiform.
In 1700 Thomas Hyde first called the inscriptions "cuneiform", but deemed that they were no more than decorative friezes.{{cite book |last1=Kramer |first1=Samuel Noah |title=The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character |date=September 17, 2010 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-45232-6 |pages=9–10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iY9xp4pLp88C&pg=PA9 |language=en}}
Proper attempts at deciphering Old Persian cuneiform started with faithful copies of cuneiform inscriptions, which first became available in 1711 when duplicates of Darius's inscriptions were published by Jean Chardin.{{cite book |last1=Kramer |first1=Samuel Noah |title=The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character |date=September 17, 2010 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-45232-6 |pages=11–12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iY9xp4pLp88C&pg=PA11 |language=en}}Kent, R. G.: "Old Persian: Grammar Texts Lexicon", page 9. American Oriental Society, 1950.
{{multiple image
|image1=The first published full cuneiform inscription, today known as DPc.jpg
|image2=Persepolis, Palace of Darius, Window with inscription DPc.jpg
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| align = center
|footer=Cuneiform inscriptions recorded by Jean Chardin in the ruins of the Palace of Darius, Persepolis in 1674. The Achaemenid royal inscription, today known as DPc,{{cite book | last=Potts | first=D.T. | title=The Archaeology of Elam: Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State | publisher=Cambridge University Press | series=Cambridge World Archaeology | year=2016 | isbn=978-1-107-09469-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WE62CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA8 | access-date=2023-03-25 | page=8}} is in three languages: the top is Old Persian cuneiform, the left is Elamite cuneiform, and the right is Babylonian.
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Old Persian cuneiform: deduction of the word for "King" (circa 1800)
{{multiple image|perrow=1/2|total_width=300|caption_align=center
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| image1 = Niebuhr1778bd2 Cuneiform inscriptions 1.jpg
| image2 = Persepolis, Palace of Darius, Inscription DPa.jpg
| image3 = Persepolis, Palace of Xerxes, Inscription XPe.jpg
| footer=Niebuhr's publications of Achaemenid royal inscriptions in Persepolis, and modern photos of the originals, today known as DPa and XPe, from the Palaces of Darius and Xerxes.}}
Carsten Niebuhr brought very complete and accurate copies of the inscriptions at Persepolis to Europe, published in 1767 in Reisebeschreibungen nach Arabien ("Account of travels to Arabia and other surrounding lands").Niebuhr, Carsten, Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und andern umliegender Ländern (Account of travels to Arabia and other surrounding lands), vol. 2 (Kopenhagen, Denmark: Nicolaus Möller, 1778), [https://books.google.com/books?id=TG5BAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA150 p. 150]; see also [https://books.google.com/books?id=TG5BAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA150-IA5 the fold-out plate (Tabelle XXXI)] after p. 152. From p. 150: "Ich will auf der Tabelle XXXI, noch eine, oder vielmehr vier Inschriften H, I, K, L beyfügen, die ich etwa in der Mitte an der Hauptmauer nach Süden, alle neben einander, angetroffen habe. Der Stein worauf sie stehen, ist 26 Fuß lang, und 6 Fuß hoch, und dieser ist ganz damit bedeckt. Man kann also daraus die Größe der Buchstaben beurtheilen. Auch hier sind drey verschiedene Alphabete." (I want to include in Plate XXXI another, or rather four inscriptions H, I, K, L, which I found approximately in the middle of the main wall to the south [in the ruined palace at Persepolis], all side by side. The stone on which they appear, is 26 feet long and 6 feet high, and it's completely covered with them. One can thus judge therefrom the size of the letters. Also here, [there] are three different alphabets.){{rp|9}} The set of characters that would later be known as Old Persian cuneiform, was soon perceived as being the simplest of the three types of cuneiform scripts that had been encountered, and because of this was understood as a prime candidate for decipherment (the two other, older and more complicated scripts were Elamite and Babylonian). Niebuhr realized that there were only 42 characters in the simpler category of inscriptions, which he named "Class I", and affirmed that this must therefore be an alphabetic script.{{cite book |last1=Mousavi |first1=Ali |title=Persepolis: Discovery and Afterlife of a World Wonder |date=2012 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-1-61451-033-8 |pages=118 ff |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KorZMqmTOJgC&pg=PA118 |language=en}}
At about the same time, Anquetil-Duperron came back from India, where he had learnt Pahlavi and Persian under the Parsis, and published in 1771 a translation of the Zend Avesta, thereby making known Avestan, one of the ancient Iranian languages. With this basis, Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy was able to start the study of Middle Persian in 1792–93, during the French Revolution, and he realized that the inscriptions of Naqsh-e Rostam had a rather stereotyped structure on the model: "Name of the King, the Great King, the King of Iran and Aniran, son of N., the Great King, etc...". He published his results in 1793 in Mémoire sur diverses antiquités de la Perse.
In 1798, Oluf Gerhard Tychsen made the first study of the inscriptions of Persepolis copied by Niebuhr. He discovered that series of characters in the Persian inscriptions were divided from one another by an oblique wedge ({{Script|Xpeo|𐏐}}) and that these must be individual words. He also found that a specific group of seven letters ({{Script|Xpeo|𐎧𐏁𐎠𐎹𐎰𐎡𐎹}}) was recurring in the inscriptions, and that they had a few recurring terminations of three to four letters. However, Tychsen mistakenly attributed the texts to Arsacid kings, and therefore was unable to make further progress.
Friedrich Münter, Bishop of Copenhagen, improved over the work of Tychsen, and proved that the inscriptions must belong to the age of Cyrus and his successors, which led to the suggestion that the inscriptions were in the Old Persian language and probably mentioned Achaemenid kings.{{cite book |last1=Mousavi |first1=Ali |title=Persepolis: Discovery and Afterlife of a World Wonder |date=April 19, 2012 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-1-61451-033-8 |page=120 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KorZMqmTOJgC&pg=PA120 |language=en}} He suggested that the long word appearing with high frequency and without any variation towards the beginning of each inscription ({{Script|Xpeo|𐎧𐏁𐎠𐎹𐎰𐎡𐎹}}) must correspond to the word "King", and that repetitions of this sequence must mean "King of Kings". He correctly guessed that the sequence must be pronounced kh-sha-a-ya-th-i-ya, a word of the same root as the Avestan xšaΘra- and the Sanskrit kṣatra- meaning "power" and "command", and now known to be pronounced xšāyaθiya in Old Persian.See:
- Münter, Frederik (1800a) [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d00004536u;view=1up;seq=273 "Undersögelser om de Persepolitanske Inscriptioner. Förste Afhandling."] (Investigations of the inscriptions of Persepolis. First part.), Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabers-Selskabs Skrivter (Writings of the Royal Danish Society of Science), 3rd series, 1 (1) : 253–292. [in Danish]
- Münter, Frederik (1800b) [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d00004536u;view=1up;seq=643 "Undersögelser om de Persepolitanske Inscriptioner. Anden Afhandling."] (Investigations of the inscriptions of Persepolis. Second part.), Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabers-Selskabs Skrivter (Writings of the Royal Danish Society of Science), 3rd series, 1 (2) : 291–348. [in Danish] On p. 339, Münter presents the Old Persian word for "king" written in cuneiform.
- Reprinted in German as: Münter, Friederich, [https://archive.org/stream/versuchberdiekei00mnte#page/n7/mode/2upVersuch über die keilförmigen Inschriften zu Persepolis] [Attempt at the cuneiform inscription at Persepolis] (Kopenhagen, Denmark: C. G. Prost, 1802).{{rp|10}}
File:Niebuhr inscription 1 with word for King.jpg|Niebuhr inscription 1, with the suggested words for "King" ({{Script|Xpeo|𐎧𐏁𐎠𐎹𐎰𐎡𐎹}}) highlighted, repeated three times. Inscription now known to mean "Darius the Great King, King of Kings, King of countries, son of Hystaspes, an Achaemenian, who built this Palace".{{cite book |last1=André-Salvini |first1=Béatrice |title=Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia |date=2005 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-24731-4 |page=129 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kJnaKu9DdNEC&pg=PA129 |language=en}} Today known as DPa, from the Palace of Darius in Persepolis, above figures of the king and attendants {{cite web | title=DPa | website=Livius | date=2020-04-16 | url=https://www.livius.org/sources/content/achaemenid-royal-inscriptions/dpa/ | access-date=2023-03-19}}
File:Niebuhr inscription 2 with word for King.jpg|Niebuhr inscription 2, with the suggested words for "King" ({{Script|Xpeo|𐎧𐏁𐎠𐎹𐎰𐎡𐎹}}) highlighted, repeated four times. Inscription now known to mean "Xerxes the Great King, King of Kings, son of Darius the King, an Achaemenian". Today known as XPe, the text of fourteen inscriptions in three languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian) from the Palace of Xerxes in Persepolis.{{cite web | title=XPe | website=Livius | date=2020-09-24 | url=https://www.livius.org/sources/content/achaemenid-royal-inscriptions/xpe/ | access-date=2023-03-19}}
Old Persian cuneiform: deduction of the names of Achaemenid rulers and translation (1802)
File:Grotefend hypothesized sentence structure for Persepolitan inscriptions.jpg
File:Grotefend translation of the Xerxes inscription.jpg".]]
By 1802 Georg Friedrich Grotefend conjectured that, based on the known inscriptions of much later rulers (the Pahlavi inscriptions of the Sassanid kings), a king's name is often followed by "great king, king of kings" and the name of the king's father.Kent, R. G.: "Old Persian: Grammar Texts Lexicon", page 10. American Oriental Society, 1950.{{cite book |last1=Sayce |first1=Archibald Henry |title=The Archaeology of the Cuneiform Inscriptions |date=2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-08239-6 |pages=10–14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DTyaDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 |language=en}} This understanding of the structure of monumental inscriptions in Old Persian was based on the work of Anquetil-Duperron, who had studied Old Persian through the Zoroastrian Avestas in India, and Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy, who had decrypted the monumental Pahlavi inscriptions of the Sassanid kings.{{cite book |last1=Heeren |first1=A. H. L. (Arnold Hermann Ludwig) |title=Vol. 2: Historical researches into the politics, intercourse, and trade of the principal nations of antiquity. / By A.H.L. Heeren. Tr. from the German |date=1857 |publisher=H.G. Bohn |page=332 |url=https://archive.org/details/vol2historicalre00heer/page/332/mode/2up}}{{cite book |last1=Kramer |first1=Samuel Noah |title=The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character |date=1971 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-45238-8 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IuxIdug8DBUC&pg=PA12 |language=en}}
By looking at the length of the character sequences in the Niebuhr inscriptions 1 & 2, comparing with the names and genealogy of the Achaemenid kings as known from the Greeks, and taking into account the fact that according to this genealogy the father of two of the Achaemenid rulers were not kings and therefore should not have this attribute in the inscriptions, Grotefend correctly guessed the identity of the rulers. In Persian history around the time period the inscriptions were expected to be made, there were only two instances where a ruler came to power without being a previous king's son: they were Darius the Great and Cyrus the Great, both of whom became emperor by revolt. The deciding factors between these two choices were the names of their fathers and sons. Darius's father was Hystaspes and his son was Xerxes, while Cyrus' father was Cambyses I and his son was Cambyses II. Within the inscriptions, the father and son of the king had different groups of symbols for names so Grotefend correctly guessed that this king must have been Darius the Great.
These connections allowed Grotefend to figure out the cuneiform characters that are part of Darius, Darius's father Hystaspes, and Darius's son Xerxes. He equated the letters {{Script|Xpeo|𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁}} with the name d-a-r-h-e-u-sh for Darius, as known from the Greeks. This identification was correct, although the actual Persian spelling was da-a-ra-ya-va-u-sha, but this was unknown at the time. Grotefend similarly equated the sequence {{Script|Xpeo|𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠}} with kh-sh-h-e-r-sh-e for Xerxes, which again was right, but the actual Old Persian transcription was wsa-sha-ya-a-ra-sha-a. Finally, he matched the sequence of the father who was not a king {{Script|Xpeo|𐎻𐎡𐏁𐎫𐎠𐎿𐎱}} with Hystaspes, but again with the supposed Persian reading of g-o-sh-t-a-s-p,{{cite book |last1=Heeren |first1=A. H. L. (Arnold Hermann Ludwig) |title=Vol. 2: Historical researches into the politics, intercourse, and trade of the principal nations of antiquity. / By A.H.L. Heeren. Tr. from the German |date=1857 |publisher=H.G. Bohn |page=333 |url=https://archive.org/details/vol2historicalre00heer/page/332/mode/2up}} rather than the actual Old Persian vi-i-sha-ta-a-sa-pa.
By this method, Grotefend had correctly identified each king in the inscriptions, but his identification of the value of individual letters was still quite defective, for want of a better understanding of the Old Persian language itself. Grotefend only identified correctly eight letters among the thirty signs he had collated. However groundbreaking, this inductive method failed to convince academics, and the official recognition of his work was denied for nearly a generation. Although Grotefend's Memoir was presented to the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities on September 4, 1802, the academy refused to publish it; it was subsequently published in Heeren's work in 1815, but was overlooked by most researchers at the time.Ceram, C.W., Gods, Graves and Scholars, 1954See:
- Grotefend, G. F., [https://books.google.com/books?id=JQ0PAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA563 "Ueber die Erklärung der Keilschriften, und besonders der Inschriften von Persepolis"] [On the explanation of cuneiform, and especially of the inscriptions of Persepolis] in: Heeren, Arnold Hermann Ludwig, [https://books.google.com/books?id=JQ0PAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR1 Ideen über die Politik, den Verkehr und den Handel der vornehmsten Völker der alten Welt] [Ideas about the politics, commerce, and trade of the most distinguished peoples of the ancient world], part 1, section 1, (Göttingen, (Germany): Bandelhoel und Ruprecht, 1815), 563–609. [in German]
- English translation: Grotefend, G.F., "Appendix II: On the cuneiform character, and particularly the inscriptions at Persepolis" in: Heeren, Arnold Hermann Ludwig, with David Alphonso Talboys, trans., Historical Researches into the Politics, Intercourse, and Trade of the Principal Nations of Antiquity, vol. 2, (Oxford, England: D.A. Talboys, 1833), [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn39i8;view=1up;seq=327 pp. 313–360.] Grotefend's determinations of the values of several characters in cuneiform are also briefly mentioned in [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn39i9;view=1up;seq=230 vol. 1, p. 196.]
External confirmation through Egyptian hieroglyphs (1823)
File:Caylus vase 1762.jpg" in the name of Xerxes I confirmed the decipherment of Grotefend once Champollion was able to read Egyptian hieroglyphs.Pages 10–14, note 1 on page 13 {{cite book |last1=Sayce |first1=Archibald Henry |title=The Archaeology of the Cuneiform Inscriptions |date=2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-08239-6 |pages=10–14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DTyaDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 |language=en}}
It was only in 1823 that Grotefend's discovery was confirmed, when the French philologist Champollion, who had just deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs, was able to read the Egyptian dedication of a quadrilingual hieroglyph-cuneiform inscription on an alabaster vase in the Cabinet des Médailles, the Caylus vase.{{cite book |title=Bulletin des sciences historiques, antiquités, philologie |date=1825 |publisher=Treuttel et Würtz |page=135 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l302AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA135 |language=fr}} Champollion found that the Egyptian inscription on the vase was in the name of King Xerxes I, and the orientalist Antoine-Jean Saint-Martin, who accompanied Champollion, was able to confirm that the corresponding words in the cuneiform script were indeed the words which Grotefend had identified as meaning "king" and "Xerxes" through guesswork. The findings were published by Saint-Martin in Extrait d'un mémoire relatif aux antiques inscriptions de Persépolis lu à l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, thereby vindicating the pioneering work of Grotefend.{{cite journal |last1=Saint-Martin |first1=Antoine-Jean|publisher=Société asiatique (France)|title=Extrait d'un mémoire relatif aux antiques inscriptions de Persépolis lu à l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres|journal=Journal asiatique |date=January 1823 |pages=65–90 |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k931015/f64.item |language=FR}}In Journal asiatique II, 1823, PI. II, pp. 65—90 {{cite journal |last1=AAGE PALLIS |first1=SVEND |title=EARLY EXPLORATION IN MESOPOTAMIA |page=36 |url=http://www.royalacademy.dk/Publications/High/613_Pallis,%20Svend%20Aage.pdf}} This time, academics took note, particularly Eugène Burnouf and Rasmus Christian Rask, who would expand on Grotefend's work and further advance the decipherment of cuneiforms.{{cite book |last1=Sayce |first1=Archibald Henry |title=The Archaeology of the Cuneiform Inscriptions |date=27 June 2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-08239-6 |page=13, note 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DTyaDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA13 |language=en}} In effect the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs was thus decisive in confirming the first steps of the decipherment of the cuneiform script.
File:Tableau Général des signes et groupes hieroglyphiques No 125 (color).jpg
