He ruled the empire at its height, when its lands included much of West Asia, the Caucasus, as well as parts of the Balkans, Black Sea coastal regions, North Caucasus, and Central Asia. Darius the Great (550 BCE–486 BCE) was the fourth Persian king of the Achaemenid Empire. Originally the Sumerians made small tokens out of clay to represent the items. It was originally used for the Sumerian language, later also used for Semitic Akkadian (Assyrian/Babylonian), Eblaite, Amorite, Elamite, Hattic, Hurrian, Urartian, Hittite, Luwian. A Persian cuneiform text from the sixth century BC. It was re-deciphered in the 19th century with the help of the Behistun Inscription, which consisted of identical text in the 3 official languages of the Persian Empire: Old Persian… One of the oldest texts, discovered in 6th century BC, is the clay Cyrus cylinder inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform script, which is the earliest known writing system in the world. Its origins can be traced back to about 8,000 BC and it developed from the pictographs and other symbols used to represent trade goods and livestock on clay tablets. The Gate of All Nations (one of the ceremonial entrances to the palace complex) built by Xerxes I bears inscriptions in three languages: Elamite, Akkadian and Old Persian. Cuneiform is a system of writing first developed by the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia c. 3500-3000 BCE. The Old Persian script is a cuneiform script. The name comes from the Latin word cuneus for … A Babylonian cuneiform text believed to have been written in the late sixth or early fifth century BC. It is considered the most significant among the many cultural contributions of the Sumerians and the greatest among those of the Sumerian city of Uruk which advanced the writing of cuneiform c. 3200 BCE.. Cuneiform is used around 3200 BC to 100 AD. The word cuneiform in English comes from Latin cunei, which simply means wedge. Introduction The Cyrus Cylinder. It is called that way because its characters consist of different wedge-shaped figures. 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: note [that in 539 BCE, the Persian conqueror Cyrus the Great had allowed the Jews to return from their Babylonian Captivity.. Sumerian cuneiform. The Cyrus Cylinder. Knowledge of how to read cuneiform was lost by 2nd century AD as it was replaced by alphabetic writing. Histories by Herodotus. Old Persian, spoken until approximately the 3rd century bce, is attested by numerous inscriptions written in cuneiform, most notable of which is the great monument of Darius I at Bīsitūn, Iran.The inscriptions at Bīsitūn were generally trilingual—in Old Persian, Elamite, and Akkadian. Herodotus was a Greek historian in the fifth century BC, and he’s regarded as the “father of history.” The Bible. Sumerian cuneiform is the earliest known writing system. After cuneiform was replaced by alphabetic writing sometime after the first century A.D., the hundreds of thousands of clay tablets and other inscribed objects went unread for nearly 2,000 years. The entire citadel was a representation of the Persian king’s power and authority over his vast dominion. The inscription, which is approximately 15 meters high and 25 meters wide, includes three versions of the text in three different cuneiform languages: Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian, which was a … It inspired the later Semitic Ugaritic alphabet and Old Persian cuneiform. The Old Persian script.