OLD PERSIAN. The most simple of all the cuneiform systems, and the one which, as stated above, gave the key to all the others. is the Old This is employed from the sixth to the fourth century n.c. in the tablets of the Achpe menians, Darius the Great, Xerxes, Artaxerxes 1., H., and 111., and Cyrus the Younger, together with a few seals of private persons. By far the most important text is that of Darius at tun. which is about four hundred and thirteen lines long. Other inscriptions, some of them of great value, are found at Persepolis, Susa, Nags i-Rustam, Elvand, Kirman, Hamadan, and .Murghab. In addition, there are shorter tablets at Van, where the most important Armenian in scriptions exist, and at Suez. The trilingual in scription of Behistun was known to Diodorus (q.v.) in the first century B.c., who says that the deeds of Semiramis were carved there `in Syrian letters.' The Old Persian cuneiform characters are almost entirely alphabetic, each sign standing either for a vowel or for a conso nant plus a vowel. Traces of the earlier syllabic system may perhaps exist in the case of charac ters which, like some of those found in the Armenian inscriptions, have different forms ac cording to the following vowel, as , ja, but ji. The alphabet possesses thirty .
six letters, in addition to which there are four ideograms. for king, land, earth, and Ormazd. Polyphones and homophones are altogether lack ing, and the only possible trace of a determina tive is in the oblique wedge, already mentioned as the first character of any cuneiform alphabet to he deciphered, which marks the end of a word. While it is obvious that the Old Persian alpha bet is derived from the later Assyro-Babylonian signs, lust as the Aclormenians were strongly influenced in their literary style by their non Iranian predecessors, it is nevertheless not an easy task to trace the direct lineage of the letters of the single Iranian cuneiform alphabet to their Semitic originals.
There still remain a number of Old Persian inscriptions which have never been published or even copied or photographed. It is not im possible that future investigations will add new Armenian tablets, or even New Susian texts, while it is practically certain that continued ex cavations will bring to light large masses of Sumerian and Assvro-Babylonian cuneiform in scriptions. The difference in the various alpha
bets of this system may be illustrated by re producing the name of Darius in Old Persian. Miro yrienuRh New Sudan, Tariya no ash and Babylonian. Dariyarash: BIBLIOGRAPHY. Taylor, History of the AlphaBibliography. Taylor, History of the Alpha- bet (New York, 1900) ; Faulniann, Geschichte dcr Schrift (Vienna, 1880) ; Gobineau, Truitt des eerit urea cuneiformcs (Paris, 1864) : Me Dant, Le syllabaire assyricn (Paris, 18'69-73) ; Les dentures euneiformes (Paris, 1864) ; Ele ments d'epigraphic assyrienne (Paris, 1880) ; Schrader, Kcilinschriften and Geschiehtsfor sehung (Giessen, 1872); Die assyrisch-baby lonischen Keilinschriften (Leipzig, 1872) ; Cunei form. Inscriptions and the Old Testament (Eng. trans.,London, 1897) : Hommel, Geschiehte Baby lon,iens and. Assyrians (Berlin, 1885) ; Strass maier, Alphabetischcs Verzeichniss der assyri schen and akkadischen IT'orter (Leipzig, 1882 80) ; Amiaud and MCchinean, Tableau compare des eerit arcs babyloniennes et assyriennes (Paris, 1887) ; Bertin, Grammar of the Cuneiform In scriptions (London, 1888) ; Briinnow, Classified Lists of All Simple and Compound Cuneiform, Ideographs (3 vole., Leyden, 1387-97) ; Delitzsch, Entstehung des iiltesten Sehriftsystems, oder dcr Unsprung der Keilschriftzcichen (Leipzig, 1898) Bcitrage .ur Entzifferung and Erkldrung der kappadokischen Kcilschrifttafeln (Leipzig, 1S93) ; Tbureau-Dangin, Recherches sur l'ori gine de recriture euneiforme (Paris, 1898-99) ; Sayee, "Cuneiform Inscriptions of Van," in Jour nal of the Royal Asiatic Society, new series xiv.; Sandalgian, Les inscriptions cuneiformes urar tiques (Venice, 1900) ; Oppert, Le people et is Mayne des Medes (Paris, 1379) ; Weissbach, Achamenideninschriften z•eiter Art (Leipzig. 1890) : "Altpersisehe Inschriften," in Geiger and Kuhn's Grundriss der iranischen Philologie (Strasshurg. 1896) ; Spiegel, Altpersische Keil i nseh rif ten (Leipzig, 1881).