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Ancient Texts

The Cyrus Cylinder

Text. The Cyrus Cylinder, discovered in 1879 and now in the British Museum, is one of the most famous cuneiform texts, because it was once believed that it confirmed what the Bible says (Isaiah 44.23-45.8; Ezra 1.1-6, 6.1-5; 2 Chronicles 36.22-23): that in 539 BCE, the Persian conqueror Cyrus the Great had allowed the Jews to return from their Ba...

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The Cyrus Cylinder - Translation

The Cyrus Cylinder was discovered in 1879 and rapidly became one of the most famous cuneiform texts, as it seemed to confirm that the Persian conqueror Cyrus the Great had allowed the Jews to return from their Babylonian Exile. Although this is a bit exaggerated (more...), it remains an interesting text....

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Avesta

Avesta: the holy book of Zoroastrianism, the Iranian religion that was founded by the legendary Bactrian prophet Zarathustra. Like the Bible, the Avesta (sometimes incorrectly called Zend-Avesta) is actually a library, containing different sacred texts which were written during a very long period in different languages. A difference with the Bible ...

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Daiva Inscription

Achaemend Royal Inscriptions: XPh ("Daiva Inscription") In ca.521, the Persian king Darius I the Great ordered that a new alphabet, the Aryan script, was to be developed. This was used for a small corpus of inscriptions, known as the Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions. One of the most important Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions is the "Daiva inscription". ...

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Persepolis fortification tablets

Persepolis fortification tablets: large collection of ancient Persian cuneiform administrative texts, written between 506 and 497 BCE. They are one of the most important sources for the study of the administration of the Achaemenid empire. Persepolis was one of the capitals of the ancient Persian empire, founded by king Darius I the Great in 518 BC...

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Ganjnameh Inscription

Ganjnameh is an ancient inscription, 5 km southwest of Hamedan, on the side of Alvand Mountain in Iran. The inscription, which has been carved in granite, is composed of two sections. One (on the left) ordered by Darius I (521-485 BC) and the other (on the right) ordered by Xerxes I (485-65 BC). Both sections, which have been carved in three ancien...

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Persian Testimonies About Ancient Macedonian Ethnicity

Yauna Takabara. The Persian Story of Zulqarneen. Bahram Yasht....

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Old Persian Texts

The Achaemenian Kings left extensive cuneiform inscriptions in Old Persian dated roughly between 600 BCE and 300 BCE. They also left ruins which have been described as the most grandiose of the ancient world. While it is by no means certain that they were orthodox Zoroastrians, the majority opinion among scholars is that this is very likely. One of...

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The Achaemenids Law Dâta

By: Rüdiger Sshmitt. DÃ-ta, Old Iranian term for "law" (originally the neuter verbal adjective dÃ-ta-m from the root dÃ-- "to put, place," thus "(the law) set/laid down"; cf. Ger. Gesetz and Eng. law respectively), attested both in Avestan texts (Old and Younger Av. dÃ-ta-) and in Achaemenid royal inscriptions (Old Pers. dÃ-ta-; Kent, Old Persian,...

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Discovery of the First Old-Persian-Inscription

Discovery of the First Old-Persian-Inscription among the Persepolis' Fortification-Tablets. LONDON, (CAIS) -- Researchers at Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago for the first time have identified an Old-Persian (Aryan) inscription among the loaned Achaemenid-clay tablets, announced Abdolmajid Arfaee, an Iranian Archaeologist with ICHT ...

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