The Daiva-Inscription of Xerxes

Abstract

On June 26, 1935, the expedition of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago found at Persepolis a number of inscribed stone tablets, made in the shape and fashion of clay tablets, and bearing an important document of King Xerxes. Two tablets bore the Old Persian text, one the Akkadian version, and one the Elamite. A translation with a certain amount of historical commentary was given out by the Oriental Institute as a newspaper release, appearing in The New York Times for Feb. 9, 1936, and also in The University of Chicago Magazine 28.4.23-5 (Feb. 1936). This formed the basis for my own remarks on the inscription, in JAOS 56.211-5 (June 1936). A photographic view of the tablets at the place of discovery, with some explanatory remarks by Eric F. Schmidt, of the Expedition, was given in the Illustrated London News for Feb. 22, 1936, page 328; an abstract of this was presented in Archiv fiir Orientforschung 11.91 (first semester 1936). The actual text in the original languages was not accessible until it was published by Ernst Herzfeld in Archiologische Mitteilungen aus Iran 8.56-77 (Nov. 1936); he had previously published in the Revue de 1'Histoire des Religions 113.21-41 (Jan.-Feb. 1936) an address on Die Religion der Achaemeniden, originally delivered as an address at the Sixth Congress of the History of Religions at Brussels, Sept. 18, 1935, in which he drew upon the new material contained in these tablets. The latest bibliographic item which has come to my attention is a study by Hans Hartmann in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 40.145-60 (March 1937). By the courtesy of the Oriental Institute and of its Director, Dr. John A. Wilson, photographs of the two tablets in Old Persian characters have come to me, with permission to use them in the preparation of this article; and for their kindness I here express my hearty thanks to the Institute and to Dr. Wilson. I wish also to thank Dr. Herzfeld for information given in a personal letter. The Akkadian and Elamite versions are each in 50 lines, covering both sides of the tablets. The Akkadian is complete, but the Elamite