Die altpersischen Keil-inschriften von Persepolis
And Das Lautsystem des Altpersischen

Early contributions to the decipherment of the cuneiform script and Old Persian phonology, originally published in 1836 and 1847.

Christian Lassen (Author), Julius Oppert (Author)

9781108079624, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 November 2014

258 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.5 cm, 0.33 kg

The decipherment of the ancient cuneiform scripts was one of the major breakthroughs in nineteenth-century archaeology and linguistics. Among the scholars working on Old Persian was Christian Lassen (1800–76), professor of Sanskrit at Bonn. Lassen's book on cuneiform inscriptions from Persepolis appeared in 1836, a month before his friend Eugène Burnouf independently published very similar conclusions. Lassen's account gives vivid insights into the detective work involved, as he painstakingly compares individual words and grammatical forms with their Avestan and Sanskrit equivalents, and proposes sounds for the symbols. The book uses a specially designed cuneiform font, and credits the printer, Georgi of Bonn. This Cambridge Library Collection volume also includes a short monograph on Old Persian phonology published in Berlin in 1847 by the Assyriologist Julius Oppert (1825–1905). Oppert revisits Lassen's conclusions in the light of Henry Creswicke Rawlinson's important 1846 memoir on the trilingual Behistun inscription.

Part I: Vorwort
1. Einleitung
2. Die Namen Xerxes, Darius, Hystaspes
3. Ueber die in einigen Flexionen vorkommenden Buchstaben
4. Entzifferung der Völkernamen in der Niebuhr'schen Inschrift I.
5. Consonanten
6. Vocale
7. Zweifelhafte Buchstaben, Varianten, Fehler
8. Erklärung der Inschriften
Niebuhr's Inschrift I.
Niebuhr's Inschrift H.
Inschriften des Xerxes, Niebuhr's G.
Niebuhr's A.
Le Brun's no. 131
Varianten
9. Schluss
Part II: Das Lautsystem des Altpersischen (1847) Julius Oppert.

Subject Areas: Archaeology by period / region [HDD]