Bīsitūn

Bīsitūn, also spelled Bīsotūn, historically Behistun, village and precipitous rock situated at the foot of the Zagros Mountains in the Kermanshah region of Iran. In ancient times Bīsitūn was on the old road from Ecbatana, capital of ancient Media, to Babylon, and it was on that scarp that the Achaemenid king Darius I the Great (reigned 522–486 bc) placed his famous trilingual inscription, the decipherment of which provided an important key for the study of the cuneiform script. The inscription and the accompanying bas-relief were carved in a difficult, though not inaccessible, rock face. Written in Babylonian, Old Persian, and Elamite, the inscription records the way in which Darius, after the death of Cambyses II (reigned 529–522 bc), killed the usurper Gaumata, defeated the rebels, and assumed the throne. The organization of the Persian territories into satrapies or provinces is also recorded.

The inscriptions were first reached and copied (1835–47) by Henry Rawlinson, an officer in the East India Company working in Persia. Rawlinson published his findings in 1849 and virtually accomplished the task of deciphering the Old Persian cuneiform texts. Largely because of Rawlinson’s success with the Old Persian text, the Babylonian and Elamite versions were also soon translated. Later efforts at Bīsitūn by various archaeological groups have clarified some of Rawlinson’s readings, more accurately measured gaps in the text, and helped to determine when the events took place (c. autumn 522–spring 520 bc). In 2006 Bīsitūn was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.