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Which languages were used in the Bisotun inscription?
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Darius I
This chromolithograph of a frieze at Susa depicts attendants serving Darius I.
The Bisotun inscription, commissioned by the Achaemenid king Darius I, is a trilingual text carved into a rock face in the Zagros Mountains. The inscription was recorded in the following three languages:12
- Old Persian: Written in a simplified, quasi-alphabetic system of wedge-shaped characters.1
- Elamite: Written in traditional logo-syllabic cuneiform.1
- Babylonian (also referred to as Akkadian): Also written in traditional logo-syllabic cuneiform.12
The decipherment of these texts, particularly the Old Persian version, served as a vital key for scholars to understand the cuneiform script.32