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In which languages was the Bisitun inscription written?
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The Bisitun inscription, commissioned by the Achaemenid king Darius I, is a trilingual text. It was written in the following languages:12
- Old Persian
- Elamite
- Akkadian (often referred to as Babylonian)12
The Old Persian portion was recorded using a simplified quasi-alphabetic cuneiform system, while the Elamite and Akkadian versions utilized traditional logo-syllabic cuneiform. The decipherment of these texts, particularly the Old Persian version, served as a vital key for scholars to understand cuneiform scripts.12