Behistun Inscription

A monumental inscription carved into a cliff in western Iran by order of Darius I. Its Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian texts recount his accession and victories.

Old Persian cuneiform: A cuneiform writing system used for Old Persian, with a comparatively small set of signs. Its decipherment began the reading of the inscription’s three versions.
Darius I: Achaemenid king of Persia from 522 to 486 BCE, known for consolidating and administering the empire. He commissioned the monument and speaks in its first-person account.
Achaemenid royal ideology: The beliefs and public claims through which Achaemenid kings represented their authority and rule. The inscription portrays kingship as divinely favored and rebellion as disorder.
Mount Behistun: A limestone mountain in western Iran whose cliff bears the Behistun Inscription. The steep face made the monument visible yet difficult to approach and copy.
Elamite language: An ancient language of southwestern Iran, written in cuneiform and used in the Achaemenid Empire. The inscription’s Elamite version supplies a parallel account alongside Old Persian.
Achaemenid Empire: The Persian empire founded by Cyrus the Great and ruled by the Achaemenid dynasty from the sixth to fourth centuries BCE. The inscription presents Darius’s rule as the restoration of order across this empire.
Ahura Mazda: The supreme god in ancient Iranian religion, invoked by Achaemenid kings as the source of royal favor. Darius credits Ahura Mazda with granting him kingship and victory.
Behistun relief: A carved scene showing Darius before bound captives, with a winged figure above them. Its figures stage the same victory and royal authority asserted by the text.
Babylonian language: A Semitic language of ancient Mesopotamia, commonly written in cuneiform. Its version preserves the inscription in a widely used imperial and scholarly language.
Gaumata: A figure whom Darius’s Behistun account identifies as an impostor who seized the Persian throne. Darius makes defeating Gaumata the pivotal event in his claim to legitimate rule.

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