"... I am Darius, the Great King, the King of Kings, the King in Persia, the King of Countries, the son of Hystaspes, son of Arsames, an Achaemenid...
So we are called the Achaemenids... from long ago our family has been noble...
Eight of my ancestors were kings; I am the ninth; we are all kings... By the grace of Ahuramazdâh, I am king; Ahuramazdâh gave me the kingdom. This is what I did, after that I became King... ... If you shall see this inscription and do not conceal it and tell others... and guard them as long as you live, may Ahuramazdâh be a friend to you and may you have a large family and may you live long...."
And his royal proclamation was carved high on the rocks of Behistun (Bagastâna: Place of God) overlooking the plain of modern Kermanshah, in three cuneiform languages of the empire: Akkadian, Elamite, and Old Persian (Âryâ).
The royal proclamation was the first of its kind, declaring the Achaemenid Empire reborn. King Darius was credited with the invention of Âryâ language, which more than likely pointed to his royal patronage of the language of the Persians, used in royal inscriptions in Achaemenid sites during his reign.
Ancient Bagastâna, on the trade route between Ecbatana and Babylon, was a holy place and Persians used to tie white threads of prayer to the bushes beneath the royal inscription. During the period of the Achaemenids, the plain below the Mount Behistun was rich with fruit trees and most likely was a Persian Paradise for the pleasure of the Great King.
Cuneiform language was invented by the Sumerians thousands of years before the glorious age of the Achaemenids. Cuneiform from latin cuneus (wedge) spread throughout the Near East. The wedge-shaped markings were created by pressing the tip of reed markers into wet clay tablets, and later written on papyrus by ink, carved by metal markers into stones, etched on metal vessels and written on wax-coated wood panels.
Sumerian language belonged to no known linguistic groups and its grammar remains elusive even today. Discovery of the Sumerian language changed the view of history and forced historians to reconsider their reliance on Bible as the only evidence for ancient civilizations.
Cuneiform markings were adopted and changed by the Babylonians, Assyrians, Elamites, Persians and others. They were used to record everything: from myths and legends, prayers, incantations and magical spells, laws and contracts, private and public letters, to administrative records kept by the palaces and temples. The only common thread tieing all the cuneiform languages together remained the wedge-shaped markings.
Since clay was abundant it was the medium of choice for Babylonian scribes, formed in a variety of shapes, round or square, tablets or cylinders. One or two copies of documents with limited life, letter, contracts, etc., were written and deposited in an archive for retrieval. Multiple copies of documents with a longer life were produced and preserved. While ordinary documents were left to dry in the air, more important documents were baked. First samples of cuneiform writings were taken to Europe in the 17th century from archaelogical sites in Persia and Babylon. By the 19th and 20th centuries, anything from smallest seal imnpressions to massive pieces of stone with ancient writings were looted from the ancient eastern sites, legally or most likely illegally found their way into private collections and museum holdings throughout the world. Many such writings remain unread to this day.
All the Achaemenid royal inscriptions were in multiple cuneiform languages and in most cases they were also translated to Aramaic and sent to all the royal satrapies of the Achaemeind Empire.
The tri-lingual style of the imperial proclamation of King Darius at Behistun, was followed by the Egyptian scribes who centuries later wrote the prietly decree of the cult of Ptolemy V, known as the 'Rosetta Stela', or more commonly as the Rosetta Stone. The decree written in Hieroglyph, Demotic and Greek became the key that unlocked the secrets of the splendid Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Yet, it is best to keep in mind that while the ancient cuneiform languages have revealed some of their secrets to scholars, the heart and soul of the ancient Persians may remain shrouded in mystery forever.
The best one can do is to set aside competing contemporary politics and attempt to reconstruct the past based on assuming a common human thread woven across time and space to allow the ancient Achaemenids to speak with their own words, while the sands of time, winds of spring, rains of summer, chill of autumn, snow of winter and bullets of the ignorant chip away at the splendor of the glorious Achaemenids.
Darius the King said...
"... You who worship Ahuramazdâh, divine blessing will be upon you while living, and when dead."
