Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions

Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions: collection of Old Persian cuneiform texts from the sixth, fifth, and fourth centuries BCE, left by the Achaemenid kings on their official monuments.

In ca.521, the Persian king Darius I the Great ordered that a new alphabet, which he called the "Aryan script", was to be developed. It was used for a small corpus of inscriptions, known as the Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions. This page offers links to transcriptions, translations and pictures.

The general system to refer to these texts consists of three letters. The first one indicates the king (e.g, X = Xerxes); the second the site (e.g., S = Susa); the third letter is added to distinguish the inscriptions of the same ruler on the same site.
I have created these pages because these important sources are not available online, and not every library in the world owns the relevant publications.
The drawings were scanned from R.N. Sharp, The Inscriptions in Old Persian Cuneiform of the Achæmenian Emperors (s.l., s.d.). They will be replaced by something better as soon as I have mastered Unicode.

Overview

In this table, the first column indicates the inscription; the second column offers a very brief summary; the four last columns indicate whether there is a Photo, a Drawing, a Persian Text, and an English translation.

Ariaramnes	Darius I	Darius II
Arsames	Xerxes	Artaxerxes II
Cyrus	Artaxerxes I	Artaxerxes III

Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions

Ariaramnes, Hamadan
AmH	Gold tablet, possibly a fake		D	T	E
Arsames, Hamadan
AsH	Gold tablet, possibly a fake		D	T	E
Cyrus the Great (559-530), Babylon
CB	"Cyrus Cilinder" (in Babylonian)	P	D		E
Cyrus the Great (559-530), Pasargadae / Murghab
CMa	Entrance of Palace P and Palace S	P	D	T	E
CMb	On a relief of king Cyrus in Palace P	P			E
CMc	Above a relief of king Cyrus in Gate R	P			E
Darius I the Great (522-486), Behistun
DB	"Behistun Inscription", (column #1, #2, #3, #4, #5)		D	T	E
	DBa, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k: additions to DB	P		T	E
Darius I the Great (522-486), Gandj Nameh / Elvend
DE	Inscription near a waterfall	P	D	T	E
Darius I the Great (522-486), Gherla
DG	Fragment of a clay tablet from Romania				E
Darius I the Great (522-486), Hamadan
DH	Gold and silver tablet (text identical to DPh)			T	E
Darius I the Great (522-486), Naqš-e Rustam
DNa	Upper register of Darius' tomb	P	D	T	E
DNb	Lower register of Darius' tomb (later copied as XPl)	P	D	T	E
DNc	Brief honorific text for Gobryas	P		T	E
DNd	Brief honorific text for Aspathines			T	E
DNe	People list			T	E
Darius I the Great (522-486), Persepolis
DPa	From the Palace of Darius	P	D	T	E
DPb	On reliefs in the Palace of Darius and the Palace of Xerxes	P		T	E
DPc	On window corniches in the Palace of Darius	P	D	T	E
DPd	Terrace inscription	P	D	T	E
DPe	Terrace inscription	P	D	T	E
DPf-g	Terrace inscriptions				E
DPh	Gold and silver tablets from the Apadana (text identical to DH)		D	T	E
DPi	Doorknob		D	T	E
DPj	Fragment of a column base			T	E
Darius I the Great (522-486), Susa
DSa	Two tiles		D	T	E
DSb	Two tiles		D	T	E
DSc	Column base			T	E
DSd	Column base			T	E
DSe	Empire list	P	D	T	E
DSf	Foundation inscription	P	D	T	E
DSg	Column base		D	T	E
DSi	Column base		D	T	E
DSj	Column base		D	T	E
DSk	Brick		D	T	E
DSl	Brick		D	T	E
DSm	Incomplete inscription on glazed bricks			T	E
DSn	Statue			T	E
DSo	Slab of marble			T	E
DSp	Incomplete slab of marble		D	T	E
DSq	Slab of marble			T	E
DSs	Slab of marble			T	E
DSt	Slab of marble		D	T	E
DSu	Elamite inscription on a slab of marble				E
DSv	Damaged Babylonian inscription on a slab of marble				E
DSw	Babylonian inscription on a slab of marble				E
DSy	Column base	P		T	E
DSz	adaptation of DSf				E
DSaa	Abridged Babylonian version of DSf				E
DSab	Statue, in Egyptian	P			E
Darius I the Great (522-486), Suez
DZa	Cartouche			T	E
DZb	A brief "signature"			T	E
DZc	Description of the Red Sea Canal		D	T	E
Darius I the Great (522-486), Others
DWa	Weight			T	E
DWb	Weight			T	E
DWc	Weight	P		T	E
DWd	Weight			T	E
	Seal	P	D	T	E
	Vase				E
Xerxes I (486-465), Gandj Nameh / Elvend
XE	Inscription near a waterfall	P	D	T	E
Xerxes I (486-465), Hamadan
XH	Fragment of a silver pitcher			T	E
Xerxes I (486-465), Persepolis
XPa	Gate of All Nations	P	D	T	E
XPb	Stairs of the Apadana	P	D	T	E
XPc	Palace of Darius	P	D	T	E
XPd	Stairs of the Palace of Xerxes	P	D	T	E
XPe	Palace of Xerxes	P	D	T	E
XPf	"Harem inscription"	P	D	T	E
XPg	Glazed bricks from the Apadana	P	D	T	E
XPh	"Daiva inscription"	P	D	T	E
XPi	Doorknob			T	E
XPj	Column bases			T	E
XPk	Relief			T	E
XPl	Adaptation of DNb				E
XPm	Column bases			T	E
Xerxes I (486-465), Susa
XSa	Column bases		D	T	E
XSb	Babylonian inscription on column bases				E
XSc	Inscription on a slab of marble		D	T	E
XSd	Column bases	P			E
XSe	Babylonian inscription on a slab of marble				E
Xerxes I (486-465), Van
XV	Rock inscription	P	D	T	E
Xerxes I (486-465), others
	Seals			T	E
	Vase			T	E
Artaxerxes I Makrocheir (465-424), Persepolis
A1Pa	Block of stone		D	T	E
A1Pb	Hall of Hundred Columns				E
Artaxerxes I Makrocheir (465-424), vases
A1Va	Vase			T	E
A1Vb	Vase			T	E
A1Vc-d	Vase			T	E
Darius II Nothus (424-404), Hamadan
D2Ha	Gold tablet				E
Darius II Nothus (424-404), Susa
D2Sa	Column base		D	T	E
D2Sb	Column base		D	T	E
Darius II Nothus (424-404), Others
	Vase (possibly of Darius I the Great)	P			E
Artaxerxes II Mnemon (404-358), Hamadan
A2Ha	Column base	P	D	T	E
A2Hb	Column bases			T	E
A2Hc	Gold tablet		D	T	E
Artaxerxes II Mnemon (404-358), Persepolis
A2Pa	People list on the Tomb of Artaxerxes II		D	T	E
Artaxerxes II Mnemon (404-358), Susa
A2Sa	Column base	P		T	E
A2Sb	Column base	P		T	E
A2Sc	Stone tablet			T	E
A2Sd	Column bases from the Palace of Artaxerxes II	P	D	T	E
Artaxerxes III Ochus (358-338), Persepolis
A3Pa	Repairs to the Palace of Darius	P	D	T	E
Artaxerxes III Ochus (358-338), other
	Seals				E
Related texts
	An Egyptian amulet with the name of Darius I	P			E
	An Egyptian vase with the name of Xerxes	P		T	E
	An inscription from Hamadan, mentioning a king Artaxerxes	P			E

Literature

Pierre Lecoq, Les inscriptions de la Perse achéménide (1997 Paris)