Sujet

Detail of trilingual relief of Darius, Bisitun, Iran

Légende

Detail of trilingual relief of Darius, Bisitun, Iran. This relief is the equivalent to cuneiform of what the Rosetta Stone represents to the understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Carved into a cliff above an ancient road in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains, it tells the story of the reign of Darius I, who ruled Persia from 521 to 486 BC. The same text is repeated in three languages, Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian. In the 1830s and 1840s A British army officer, Sir Henry Rawlinson, had the inscriptions transcribed and was able to translate first the Persian, and later with the help of others, the Elamite and Babylonian texts. The carvings are high above the road and are in fact illegible from it. It is believed that Darius' main concern was to make the reliefs proof from tampering by siting them in a relatively inaccessible position.

Date

1996

Crédit

Photo12/Heritage Images/Vivienne Sharp

Notre référence

HRM19D57_302

Model release

Non

Licence

Droits gérés

Format disponible

49,9Mo (3,4Mo) / 43,5cm x 28,8cm / 5135 x 3399 (300dpi)

Mots clés

arts pays sculpture art couleur couleur archéologie soulagement inscription endroit siècle histoire Iranien emplacement archéologique archéologie traduction Persan Perse cunéiforme VIVIENNE SHARP photographie Vivienne Sharp Bisitun Kermanshahan Darius I Darius the Great Sharp Vivienne VS VSP Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson Rawlinson Sir Henry Creswicke Henry Creswicke Rawlinson Henry Rawlinson Sir Henry Rawlinson photographie