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"King Darius Told Me So."
Philologist Reads For Posterity Sculptured
Memorial To Ancient Ruler.
(By HERBERT B. NICHOLS in the Christian Science Monitor)
ON the face of precipitous Mt.
Behistun in Iran, high above
the caravan route to Babylonia
from ancient Persia, King Darius
left a sculptured memorial of his
reign and deeds.
For 2,500 years the story had
been there for all to read and
marvel. But not until 100 years
ago, when Sir Henry Rawlinson
and expedition members from the
British Museum climbed the face
of the cliffs and deciphered parts
of the inscription, was the historic
message of King Darius made
known to the world.
Sir Henry was able to translate
only portions of the inscription,
however. Vicissitudes of time and
weather had even then left im-
prints to mar the sculptors' work.
Some portions were gone entirely.
More recently, British Tommies
stationed in the vicinity during
World War II, failed to appreci-
ate the value of this memorial and
further defaced it with bursts of
steel-jacketed bullets from their
machine guns.
But there is good news. Dr.
George G. Cameron, noted philo-
logist at the University of Michi-
gan, recently returned from Iran
following a "One-Family Expedi-
tion" participated in by his wife
(Frances) and son (Thomas). He
examined the entire sculpture at
close hand, which had been im-
possible before, and for the first
time is able to quote in full the
message to posterity from King
Darius.
He can do this, he says, because
the inscription was written in
three ancient languages. Profess-
or Cameron's major contribution
was the recording and deciphering
of four columns of ancient cune-
iform writing which have baffled
scholars ever since 1847.
THAT portion of
the narrow ledge on
which the sculptors stood
when cutting the figures is
long since gone. Even 100
years ago Sir Henry had not
been able to inspect the entire
work at close range. Professor
Cameron did so by hanging from
a scaffold suspended by steel ca-
bles from a mountain point 200
feet above. In order to obtain his
photographs and plastic impres-
sions, he worked in bitterly cold
weather, through snowstorms and
amid falling boulders.
He likens the monument to the
famous "Rosetta Stone" found by
Napoleon's troops in Egypt. Just
as that stone provided the lan-
guage key to ancient Egyptian hi-
eroglyphs, so the "Rosetta Stone" .
of Western Asia provided the key
to a knowledge of the languages
of Babylon and Elam. The same
story was told by King Darius in
three tongues and, since ancient
Persian was known, decipherment
of the other two was possible.
Professor Cameron's contribu-
tion is really four fold :
1. - He translated four columns
of the ancient inscription which
previously defied analysis, and has
found that they also were in El-
amite, the language spoken at
Shushan, the Elain capital. That
was where the palace mentioned
in the Biblical book of Esther
once stood.
The previously untranslated
portion— some 323 lines running
lengthwise for a distance of 20
feet - recounts once again the
great victories of Darius in battle
over nine major enemies. Adjac-
ent to the inscription is a hand-
somely carved group of figures,
including Ahuramazda, an ancient
god, and Darius the Great. The
King stands on the prostrate form
of an enemy and facing him are
nine conquered kings, their necks
bound with the rope of enslave-
ment.
2. - Dr. Cameron has re-read
and copied all the difficult pas-
sages from other sections of the
inscription which had been copied
previously but could not be trans-
lated. Water pouring down the
face of the inscription for centur-
ies had made this task difficult.
Professor Cameron has been able
to read all but one of more than
100 obscure passages in the text.
3. - He examined details of the
relief— the sculptured figures ad-
jacent to the inscription — more
thoroughly than had even before
been possible.
STROKING the
beard of Darius, he
found that this portion
was an addition to the orig-
inal relief and consisted of an
inset piece of stone, anchored
with iron pegs set in lead. A
shoulder of the ancient Persian
was likewise held in place by the
same process.
Dr. Cameron found that previ-
ous descriptions of the upper part
of the body of the god, Ahura-
mazda, omit one major fact — an
iron peg juts out of the flared
crown. That peg once held a sil-
ver ornament, now missing, which
formed a part of the crown. The
figure contains a cylindrical head-
dress, with horns, and a solar
disk from which eight rays pro-
ject. But the existence of the iron
peg had never been known before.
4. - Finally, he found out how
the enormous inscription — 52 feet
long by 20 feet high— was cut
from the living rock.
This has long puzzled scholars,
since at one time there must have
been easy access to the memorial.
Now it can be reached only with
elaborate equipment. Professor
Cameron by careful exploration
found the remains of an ancient
staircase and evidence that 60 feet
of this stairway had been chiseled
off the side of the mountain after
the workmen were finished. Ap-
parently the ancient ruler wanted
caravan voyagers to view the
work, but was fearful lest some
future ruler destroy it.
Darius evidently knew, too, that
he was recording his deed for a
really distant bosterity, because a
portion of the inscription reads :
"You who read my inscription
even this, and preserve it and do
not conceal it, the god of Ahura-
mazda be thy friend. Thou shalt
live long, and thou shalt have a
big family."
Language scholars of the Near
East have had his job of decipher-
ment and translation before them
for 101 years, Dr. Cameron com-
mented in answer to the question
of why he picked this particular
project. It took him several weeks
to prepare the installation before
he could actually go to work on
the monument itself.
AT the foot of Mt.
Behistun the Camerons
found a native village.
While the expedition work-
ed, everyone came out to
watch. Much of the equipment
used had been brought from the
United States. The American
Wire and Cable Company of
Cleveland supplied 1,200 feet of
wire cable. Experienced riggers,
loaned by the Anglo-Iranian Oil
Co., installed steel pegs into ce-
ment bases in the rocky cliffside,
194 feet above the inscription.
Translation of the inscription
was finished in about three weks,
but it had taken a great deal
more than this to get at the me-
morial. Castings were made of
the inscriptions after Dr. Cam-
eron painted latex over the sur-
face, filled in depressions with
gauze, allowed the whole to dry,
and then peeled it off.
The carving had been done with
infinite patience and superb skill,
Dr. Cameron reported.
But perhaps the finest examples
of such sculpture are still the fig-
ures uncovered at Persepolis, the
capital of Darius, where Professor
Cameron also participated in an
expedition.
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