Reza Moradi Ghiasabdi
Translated by: Yusef Amiri
Even though in Nov 2007 I published a preliminary report of reading the newly-found Kharg inscription, this inscription still had complexities and unanswered questions with regards to authenticity and spelling, and especially in its translation and I was hoping to find answer to them or put forward hypotheses after more review and investigation. One of these questions came up during the reading of the third character of the second row where we encountered a totally unknown figure not found in any other known text written in Old Persian cuneiform. The author did not delve into that so he could investigate more. But now, unfortunately this exceptional inscription has suffered serious damages and destruction and the opportunity for more study is lost. Now, inevitably we have to suffice to the pictures that I took from the inscription at that time.
Figure 1: Kharg Inscription before destruction
Photos by R. M. Ghiasabadi, Feb 2008
More pictures of Kharg and the inscription
The subject of this article was first discussed in a valuable conference held last Sunday (22 June 2008) at the Center for Public Endeavour under the auspices of Iran Natural and Cultural Monuments Watch and Association of Iranian Farr-Avaran and its report was published in Iran Cultural News Portal CHN and Iranian Student News Agency ISNA.
We know that in Old Persian cuneiform, the nasal “n” sound before plosive (stop consonant) or spirant (fricative consonant) sounds (like “k”) are pronounced but not written. For instance, name of the last rebel mentioned in Bistun Inscription by Darius the Great is written as Sakūkha but pronounced as Skūnkha.
Figure 2: new combined character of Old Persian cuneiform
found in Kharg inscription.
On the other hand, Old Persian cuneiform has 36 signs or characters and the third character of the second row in Kharg inscription is not found among these 36 known characters seen in other Old Persian inscriptions.
This new character consists of two short horizontal wedges, a slanted one and a larger vertical one. This is clearly a combination of characters for ‘na’ and ‘ko’ sounds. In this cuneiform, character ‘na’ is written as two short horizontal wedges and a slanted one; character for ‘ko’ has one slanted wedge and a large vertical one. In the design of this new combined character, the common slanted wedge is put in the middle and the two short wedges of ‘na’ appear on its left and the large wedge indicative of ‘ko’ comes on its right.
Figure 3: new combined character of Old Persian cuneiform
found in Kharg inscription.
It seems that at some point it was decided to invent a new character for the ‘nko’ sound where the nasal ‘n’ was pronounced but not written. This new character was used in writing Sânkoŝâ in Kharg inscription. If this is correct (as it clearly can be seen in the picture), we can conclude that a new 37th character of the Late Old Persian cuneiform has been found.
گفتارهای دیگر:
- Kharg Inscription destroyed
- Kharg Newly Discovered Achaemenid Inscription
- Discovery of 3000-Years old Board-Games and a Compass-Rose in Persian Gulf’s Kharg Island
- Discovery of the Second Persian Geometrical Inscription
- Oldest Inscription of Cyrus Translated to Persian Language
- Gâhanbâr Calendar The Oldest Calendar that has Found in Persia
- Découverte de la seconde inscription Persane géométrique
- Pathology of Persian Empire’s Ancient Heritage
- Persian Studies