BEHISTUN, (Ar., Pers. bagh, garden + Pers. stall, district, region; Bisatone, Disutun of the old Persian inscriptions). A ruined town of the Persian Province of Irak Ajemi, 21 miles east of Kermanshah. Diodorus Sleuths ( II., 13) says that Queen Semiramis, on a journey from Babylon to Ecbatana, encamped here, and had her likeness and the likenesses of a hundred of her guard cut into the rock of the mountain that rises at this place. This tradi tion refers to a most remarkable inscription found at the limestone mountain at Behistun, which possesses great historical value. The mountain rises to a height of 1700 feet, and the inscription is found at a height of 300 feet, in a position such that it must have been engraved with the aid of scaffolding. Although observed by several travelers, it was not until 18:35 that it was copied by Sir Henry Rawlinson, after in finite trouble and at great expense. The inscrip tion was made by Darius 1. (c.518 we.), and contains an account of his genealogy and his tri umphs. It is in cuneiform characters, and tri lingual, being written in Assyrian, in Persian, and in Median. Accompanying the text, there is an elaborate series of sculptures, representing Darius reeeiving nine pretenders to the throne, who stand before him with chains about their necks. The inscription was cut into the rock
with the utmost care, and was preserved by a varnish harder than the rock itself. After copy ing the inscription. Rawlinson spent many years in the task of decipherment. He published the Persian text in 1846, in the publications of the Royal Asiatic Society, and this publica tion, with Rawlinson's translation of the in scription, was a most important contribu tion to the solution of the mystery of Per sian cuneiform. This accomplished, he and others, notably Westergaard and Norris, set themselves to work on the Assyrian text, and by 1852 the foundations were laid for the reading of the cuneiform inscriptions meanwhile found in Mesopotamia. (See AssvniA.) The :Median re:-t was first published by Edwin Norris (London. 1853), and later by Appert, Le people ct la langur des .11edes (Paris, 1879). For the best pnblication and translation of the Persian text consult: Spiegel, Die persischcn Keilinschriftce (2d ed., Leipzig, 1881) ; of the Assyrian text, Bezold, Achtimenidea Insehriftem (Leipzig.1882) ; and of the Median text, Weisbach, Die della menideninschriften Zweite,. Art (Leipzig, 1890).