New Tablets from the Persepolis Treasury

Abstract

THE Oriental Institute excavations of the Persepolis treasury, according to the Field Director's final report, uncovered 198 tablets and fragments of such, in addition to 548 smaller fragments and a number of small chips and flakes. I In 1939, I first examined and copied all tablets and fragments which were still at Persepolis, then obtained permission to study all documents from the same source which had been forwarded by the Persepolis staff to the Teheran Archaeological Museum. In Teheran, I was graciously given access to a vast number of tiny fragments bearing at most two or three cuneiform signs, to a substantial number of sadly broken and for the most part illegible tablets, and to forty-four more or less complete documents and twenty-two others which were partially complete and (at that time) only partially legible to me. Meanwhile, at the division of the finds, forty-six documents had been awarded to the Oriental Institute and sent to its museum; there, subsequently, they were studied, copied, and photographed. When, consequently, my Persepolis Treasury Tablets2 appeared in 1948, I was definitely under the impression that I had seen and copied all those treasury documents from which any kind of useful or additional information could be derived-whether the tablets were at Persepolis, in Teheran, or in Chicago. This, it appears, was an erroneous conclusion. Although full records are not obtainable at Teheran, it appears that through some oversight I was not given access to all treasury documents forwarded to the Museum by the Oriental Institute excavators. It is also possible that subsequent excavations by Iranian authorities have brought to light a few additional documents.3 In any event, the Teheran authorities kindly permitted me to examine and copy five hitherto unseen documents in 1957.4 Again, in 1963, the authorities disclosed to me the existence of a