CUNEIFORM CHARACTER, also called the arrow-headed, also the wedge-shaped character, was used for the Bactro-Medo-Persian language of the dynasty of the Achemenidre. It was first observed at Be-situn, a little village at the foot of rocky mountains, which are covered with bas rdiefs. Cuneiform or wedge-like writings have been discovered on the solitary monument of Cyrus, on the Murghab, on the ruins of Perse polis, on the rocks of 13e-situn, near the frontiers of Media, and on the precipice of Van in Artnenia. Grotefend in 1802 ascertained that these were letters, and to be read from left to right ; but Muuter, Tychsen, Burned, Lassen, flinch, Oppert, Norris, Schrader, Le-Nonnant, the Rev. A. H. Sayce, Sir Henry Rawlinson, and George Smith, have laboured so that we noiv have translations, grammars, and dictionaries. Mr. A. II. Sayce, while reserving his opinion on the subject of the early connection of the Chinese and the primitive Aceadian population of Chaldxa, says : The cuneiform characters of Babylonia and Assyria are, as is well known, degenerated hieroglyphics, like the modern Chinese characters. The original hieroglyphics were invented by the Aceadians, before they descended into Babylonia from the mountains of Elam, and I have long been con vinced that they were originally written in vertical columns. In no other way can I explain the fact that most of the pictures to which the cuneiform characters can be traced back, stand upon their sides. There is evidence to show that the inventors of the hieroglyphics used papyrus, or some simiMr vegetable substance, for wnting purposes, before the alluvial plain of Babylonia furnished them with clay, and the use of such a writing material will easily account for the vertical direction In which the characters were made to ruu.' The inscriptions in the Naksh-i-Rustunt is a list of the Iranian nations subject to Darius ; the Persians attribute them to the chisel of their famous sculptor Farhad. A description of them is to be found in Sir John Maleohn's Persia. Enormous marble capitals of columns are to be seen at 13e-situn. There aro two tablets, the one containing a mutilated Greek inscription, declaring it to be the work of Gotarzm ; the other a Persi politan sculpture, adorned with nearly 1000 lines of cuneiform writing, exhibiting the religious vows of Darius Hystaspes after his return from the destruction of 13abylon, on the revolt of its udapati, Nebuchadnezzar, the pretended son of Nebunet. Both Ctcsias and Isidore tnention a statue and pillar of Semiramis at liaptane, but the sculptures of Semiramis and the inscription in Syriac characters have wholly disappeared. Baghistan is traditionally described as the pleasure grounds of Semiramis. According to Sir H. Rawlinson, D'Anville first suggested the identity of Be-situn with the Baghistane of the Greeks, and there are good grounds, from the ancient notices of this place, for supposing him to be correct. Etymologically considered, the evidence is even more striking. To solve all difficulties, it
may perhaps, he rulcls, be admitted that the sculpture did really exist in the lower part of the rock, scarped by tho Assyrian queen ; and that Khusru Parvez, when he was preparing to make the scarped surface the back wall of his palace, and for that purpose began to excavate deeper in the mountain, destroyed the sculptures, and removed all further trace of them. 1Vith regard to the pillar of Semiramis, it is very curious that an oriental writer of the 15th century should de scribe the rock of lie-situn from his own obser vation, as though it were sculptured in the form of a minareh or minaret. Certainly nothing of the kind now remains. Their language is ancient Persian, before that of the Zend, which represents the Persian language previous to the time of Darius. General Ferrier says the existence of bricks vvith cuneiform characters among the rivers of Balkh, had been remarked by previous travellers, and, he adds, is of much interest, as no other similar relics are known SO far to the east. Sir Henry Rawlinson suggests that they may belong to the Kushan (a famous Scythian race), who held Balkh in remote antiquity, and whose bricks, stainped with cuneiform Scythic legends, are also found at Susa, and on the shores of the Persian Gulf. M. Ferrier found great numbers of baked bricks, nearly three feet long and four inches thick, scattered about the citadel of Farrah, an ancient town which was plundered by Chengiz Khan. That their origin was certainly anterior to that of the town, was plainly indicated by the inscriptions upon them, in the cuneiform character. 'rhe existence of bricks with cuneiform characters Furrah is very important, and is not mentioned by any other traveller. The size of the bricks is also retnarkable. The only place where bricks of so large a size have been found, is in the kitchen of Sardanapalus, at Calah or Nimrud. Bunsen says the first cuneiform character waa Median or west Iranian, and is to be distinguished from the language of the Zend books, which is east Iranian, or Old Bactrian worn down.
Cuneiform inscriptions of Armenia, Azerbijan, and Elymais, are in Scythic or Turanian dialects. The third column of the trilingual inscriptions of the Zagrus range is also Scythic.
A clay tablet has been found at Cappadocia, relating,' to the gift of certain silver articles to the sun-god. The character is a peculiar kind of the cuneiform; and tablets with the same character have been found by Mr. Bassani in 1880 at Kou gunjuk. From this it is supposed that Cappadocia also had a clay library. A collection of 5400 cuneiform tablets were discovered by Mr. Rassain at Sippara, near Babylon. , It is supposed that these tablets are the library mentioned by Berosus, which contained antediluvian records copied from earlier documents by King Sargon 1., who lived 1800 years s.c.—Bunsen, iii. pp. 457, 570 ; Ed. Ferrier, Journ. pp. 207, 393 ; G. Rawlinson, p. 345.