Sir Henry Rawlinson

Major-General Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, April 5, 1810–March 5, 1895; was a pioneer in Mesopotamian archaeology. He was the first to decipher the Assyrian language, now properly known as Akkadian, and was instrumental in deciphering the Behistun inscription, commissioned by Persian king Darius the Great.

The Behistun Inscription

Rawlinson served in the British army in India and Afghanistan starting in 1827. In 1833 he was sent to Persia as part of a deputation to reorganize the shah’s army and was soon appointed a military advisor to the shah’s brother. While residing in the southern Iranian town of Kermanshah, he became familiar with a huge inscription far up a sheer cliff on the mountain of Behistun. The inscription was carved in three ancient and totally unknown languages. From 1835 to 1837 Rawlinson visited the site regularly with the aim of obtaining an exact copy of all three languages so he could attempt to decipher them.

The script used for all three languages is comprised of unique triangular characters and is now known as cuneiform text. The task of copying the text was not only tedious, but dangerous. The inscription was some 400 feet above ground level had been made deliberately inaccessible by cutting away parts of the mountain, presumably to insure the inscription could not be defaced. Rawlinson could only complete the task by standing on the top rung of a ladder precariously positioned on an 18” rock ledge with a several hundred foot drop below.

In 1842 he turned down a lucrative posting in India in favor of being appointed the British consul in Baghdad. Rawlinson used this posting to continue his work deciphering the Behistun monument.

The Behistun inscription would in time provide the key for translating ancient Persian, Elamite, and Akkadian.

Rawlinson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for his work and published his memoir on the Behistun inscription in 1851. He was also conferred (knighted) to the Order of Bath.

The second half of his life was no less busy that the first. He served on the India Council (twice), was the crown director of the East India Company, an envoy to Persia, and a member of Parliament. He was also the elder brother of historian George Rawlinson whose works on the history of Parthia are also a resource for God Save the King.

Deciphering the Behistun inscription opened the way to understanding ancient Mesopotamian cultures and much of biblical history. It also contains one of the earliest mentions of the Magi.

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