Persian had a cuneiform script comprised of 44 syllables, 36 of which were phonetic and 8 of which were logograms. The oldest Persian inscription is the Behistun Inscription written in Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian on the tomb of Darius I (549–485 BC).
With Iran as the center of their kingdom, the Achaemenids spoke Persian, a member of the Indo-European language family. In 546 BC, the Achaemenids ended the rule of the Lydian State and dominated Anatolia until 333 BC. During this period, the royal language was Persian, whereas Aramaic became widespread as the language of the people.
Persian had a cuneiform script comprised of 44 syllables, 36 of which were phonetic and 8 of which were logograms. This Persian cuneiform was not only the first cuneiform in history, but it also facilitated the decipherment of earlier scripts. The oldest Persian inscription is the Behistun Inscription written in Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian on the tomb of Darius I (549–485 BC).
Xerxes Inscription
Place of Discovery: Castle of Van
Language: Persian cuneiform
Date: 486–465 BC
“I, the great king Xerxes, the king of kings, the king of lands of many ethnic origins, the king of this vast and distant land, the son of King Darius, Achaemenid”….
Discovered on the rocks of Van Castle, the Xerxes Inscription is the most important known Persian inscription in Anatolia and recounts the achievements and victories of Xerxes.
