The discovery and decipherment of the trilingual cuneiform inscriptionsBooth, Arthur John
History
The discovery and decipherment of the trilingual cuneiform inscriptions
Booth, Arthur John
Achaemenian inscriptions; Cuneiform inscriptions
In the following year (1844) the two scholars published the results of
their labours in the ‘Zeitschrift,’ and their Memoirs afterwards appeared
together in a separate volume under the title ‘Ueber die Keilinschriften
der Ersten und Zweiten Gattung, von Chr. Lassen und N. L. Westergaard’
(Bonn, 1845).
Six years had now elapsed since Lassen published his first Memoir. During
the interval Beer and Jacquet had made their contributions to the general
knowledge; and although Major Rawlinson had not yet published his Memoir
on the Behistun inscription, he had been in correspondence with Lassen
since 1838, and had already corrected two letters. It is interesting
therefore to inquire how far Lassen profited by these investigations. We
have seen that he had nine incorrect values in 1836 for the letters in
Niebuhr’s list.[513] These were:
16 𐎨 _i_
19 𐎮 _k_
25 𐎤 with _u_ = _ô_
26 𐎰 (_z_)
27 𐎹 _h_
28 𐎩 _n_
32 𐎪 _g_
33 𐎸 _g_
40 𐎽 _s_
By 1844 he corrected the four following:
(1) 25 𐎤 into _q_, an approximate value for _k_.
(2) 26 𐎰 into _θ_, following Jacquet _th_.
(3) 27 𐎹 into _j_ for _y_, following Beer and Jacquet.
(4) 40 𐎽 into _r_, following Jacquet.[514]
He also accepted the corrected value of 41 (𐏃) as the aspirate _h_,
following Jacquet and Beer; but this value we have already allowed to
Grotefend’s _a_ for _ha_, as approximately correct. One other letter, 22
(𐎬) _t_, which he made correct in 1836, he now changes into _d’h_. Thus,
in 1844, he still had six wrong values; of these one had been correctly
fixed by himself in 1836, 22 (𐎬) _t_; another, 16 (𐎨) _ch_, recently by
Jacquet, and two by Rawlinson, 32 (𐎪) _j_, and 33 (𐎸) _m_ before _u_.
There thus remained only two letters not yet provided with correct
values: viz. 19 (𐎮), which was fixed by Holtzmann in 1845 as _d_ before
_i_,[515] and 28 (𐎩), fixed simultaneously by Hincks and Rawlinson in
1846 as _j_ before _a_.
In addition to the thirty-three signs in Niebuhr’s alphabet that gained
final recognition, two others have since been added. One of them was
first found at Behistun by Rawlinson, 43 (𐎵) _n_, and does not appear
in Lassen. The other, 44 (𐎦), was admitted in 1836 by both Burnouf
and Lassen as _gh_ and _g_, and is finally accepted as _g_ before _u_
(Spiegel). But in the Memoir of 1836, Lassen farther sanctioned two other
signs, ([Persian]) _t_, and ([Persian]) _u_, which he now rightly omits
as defective signs for 24 (𐎫) _t_ and 36 (𐎢) _u_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account