The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Behistun Inscription

an inscription of the ancient Persian king Darius I (ruled 522–486 B.C.), cut on the cliff of Behistun Rock (Bisitun, Bisotun), in the territory of present-day Iran, approximately 100 km west of Hamadan. The inscription consists of the so-called great inscription and a series of small ones. The former is divided into three large texts with identical content, written respectively in three types of cuneiform in three languages: Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian. The inscription first became accessible after H. Rawlinson copied it in 1835–47 and substantially deciphered it. The Persian cuneiform text supplied the key to the cuneiform writing of other ancient eastern peoples.

The content of the Behistun inscription provides the official version of events unfolding in the Achaemenid state after the death of Cyrus II, chiefly from 522 to 519 B.C. The inscription tells of the rebellion of the magus Gaumata, his murder by conspirators from the Persian aristocracy, and the crowning of Darius I. It also describes subsequent rebellions and their suppression and the campaign of Darius I in Middle Asia.

REFERENCES

Abaev, V. I. “Perevod persidskogo teksta Bol’shoi, ili Bekhistun-skoi nadpisi.” In Khrestomatiia po istorii Drevnego mira, 2nd ed., vol. 1. Moscow, 1950. Pages 255–63.
Dandamaev, M. A. “Bekhistunskaia nadpis’ i antichnye avtory o Bardii—Gaumate.” Kratkie soobshcheniia In-ta narodov Azii AN SSSR, 1962, issue 46.
Struve, V. V. Etiudy po istorii Severnogo Prichernomor’ia, Kavkaza i Srednei Azii. Leningrad, 1968. Chapters 1–3.
Tiurin, V. O. “K ustanovleniiu znacheniia sotsial’no-ekonomich. terminov Bekhistanskoi nadpisi.” In the collection Tr. Intaiazykoznaniia AN SSSR, vol. 6. Moscow, 1956. (Bibliography.)
Trömpelmann, L. T. “Zur entstehungsgeschichte des Monuments Dareios I von Bisitun . . . .” Archaologischer Anzeiger, 1967. no. 3.

V. O. TIURIN