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
The translator, Davies, seems
to have thought that by the four stairs were meant a single flight at
each corner of the platform. The four ‘walls’ of the Porch appear as a
series of detached stones placed in a row, one after the other, along
the western line of the terrace. The animals are cut out of the front
of each stone, but they have no appearance of supporting any portion of
the structure. Beyond, at some distance to the east, is a small square
building, having on one side the slab with the inscription. There is no
indication whatever of the sculptured terrace, which is indeed wholly
forgotten in the text. The columns, however, at length appear for the
first time in the true direction to the right of the entrance. From
them an immense wall extends right across the platform to the east. It
is pierced below by one large and three other smaller doors. Above,
apparently belonging to a second story, are a series of seven or eight
double windows, while still higher we observe several figures of men and
animals. This great structure obscures the view of the tombs on the hill,
and they are not mentioned in the text. Olearus, in his notes, refers to
Barbaro, and, at second hand, to Don Garcia. But his chief reference is
to Herbert, from whom he quotes the whole of the account given in the
earlier editions of the Travels.
Mandelslo’s book was translated into English by John Davies, and it
appeared in 1662, four years after its original publication; but the
illustrations were not reproduced.[33] The translator has adopted the
very singular method of incorporating with the text the notes that
Olearus added from other writers. Mandelslo is thus made to appear as
if he had quietly appropriated without acknowledgment the observations
made by Barbaro, Don Garcia, and Herbert. The translator is, however,
wholly responsible for this peculiar result. At the time Olearus issued
his edition (1658) the text, taken together with the notes, probably
resumed all that was then known concerning Persepolis and the cuneiform
letters; and the translator made no independent additions.[34] But in the
same year (1658) the third volume of Della Valle’s Travels was at length
published, in which he gives the account of his visit to the ruins. His
fame soon became well known in England, and a translation of his Travels
to India appeared in 1665, along with those of Sir Thomas Roe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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