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Archaeologists
have succeeded to decipher the text of an old
stone tablet found recently in Boushehr, south of
Iran. The tablet belongs to Darius the Great, King
of Achaemenids.
Excavation in the old palace of Bardak-e Siah in
Boushehr, in the southern province of Boushehr, at
the end of March led to the discovery of a stone
tablet, with a written text in New Babylonian and
a relief of Darius the Great.
Experts of ancient languages succeeded to read and
decipher the text, which is evidently part of a
larger one. It says: “… I put … on top of
the gate…”
According to head of the excavation team of
Doroudgah-e Borazjan (where the palace is
located), Ehsan Yaghmayi, the stone inscription is
actually the base of a column. The beginning and
end of the inscription is broken and a large part
of the text is still uncovered, leaving experts
with just one line of inscription.
Dr. Abdolmajid Rafi’i, expert of ancient
languages, has proved that the language the text
is written in is New Babylonian. The one sentence
reads: “… I put … on top of the gate …”.
In the Achaemenid era, each tablet was usually
inscribed not only in New Babylonian, but also in
New Elamite and Ancient Persian, and therefore,
the archaeology team is looking to find the rest
of the Darius tablet.
Last week, the team also found another tablet,
which is grey and is of limestone. It measures 3x5
centimeters and only one word is inscribed on it.
Experts believe it belonged to a larger text. Dr.
Arfai’i has started working on deciphering the
new discovery.
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