Achaemenid inscription on Kharg Island

Inscription before its destruction

The Achaemenid inscription on Kharg Island is an important inscription from the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE) on Kharg Island, off the coast of Iran.

Discovery

On 14 November 2007, an Achaemenid-era cuneiform inscription in Old Persian, carved on a coral rock, was discovered while constructing a road on Kharg Island, Iran. Construction was halted, and eventually the road was rerouted.[1][2][3][4]

The inscription

The inscription, estimated to be around 2400 years old,[5] is written in the Old Persian language with the Old Persian cuneiform semi-syllabic alphabet. The height and the width of the inscription is around 1 m (3 ft 3 in), and the rock is around 85 cm (33 in) x 116 cm (46 in).[1] Despite the usually well-ordered regular system of Achaemenid inscriptions, this one is in an unusual order, written in five lines,[3] and contained six Old Persian words, five of which were unknown at the time it was discovered.[6]

The inscription has been translated in various ways:

  1. "[This] land was wilderness and without water [and] I brought happiness and welfare to it."[5]
  2. "The not irrigated land was happy [with] me bringing out [water]".[6]
  3. "[This] land was a dry area with no water; [I] brought happiness and welfare,... water wells."[1][a]

The linguist Habib Borjian explains that if the inscription is authentic, combined with the island's known history of qanat usage,[b] which began under Achaemenid rule in the Near East, it can be suggested that there was a Persian colonisation of Kharg under the Achaemenids.[6] The Iranian dialect of the Persian settlers of the Achaemenid era may have in turn been the ancestor of the Khargi language.[6]

The inscription became a contentious matter in the Persian Gulf naming dispute; some experts said that it was another piece of evidence that confirmed the Persian name for the Persian Gulf. This led to a "media frenzy" in surrounding Arab countries, where efforts were made to disprove its authenticity.[1][5]

Vandalism

On 31 May 2008, the inscription was seriously damaged by vandal(s). After climbing a fence, they destroyed it with a sharp object, such that (according to Khark Deputy Governor Ali Jazebi) about 70% of the inscription was seriously damaged; another source said that only around 10-15% was damaged. The nature of the damage indicates that it was done deliberately.[1] The Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organization of Iran said that it was related to the Persian Gulf naming dispute.[4] The Bushehr Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department (BCHTHD) said that they had begun a process to prosecute the suspected vandals. The police were responsible for guarding the site, but according to the BCHTHD spokesman, the artefact was not adequately guarded owing to the lack of a guardhouse, as the National Iranian Oil Company, which owns the island, did not provide the land for one.[1]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Translation by Rasul Bashshash, an expert at the Archaeological Research Center of Iran.[1]
  2. ^ The 17th-century French traveller Jean de Thévenot noted the presence of qanats (ancient irrigation systems) on the island.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Khark island's Achaemenid inscription seriously damaged". Payvand News. 1 June 2008. Archived from the original on 28 April 2012. Source: Mehr News Agency
  2. ^ "کتیبه سنگی متعلق به دوره هخامنشی در خارک کشف‌شد". Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organization. Archived from the original on 23 December 2008.
  3. ^ a b "Newly Found Old-Persian Cuneiform Inscription of Kharg Island Deciphered". Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency. 8 December 2007. Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
  4. ^ a b "کتیبه خارک، سندی دیگر بر تایید نام خلیج فارس، تخریب شد". Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organization. Archived from the original on 7 October 2008.
  5. ^ a b c "Kharg Island Achaemenid Inscription". Persian Empire. Archived from the original on 15 November 2025. Retrieved 14 March 2026.
  6. ^ a b c d Borjian, Habib (2019). "The Language of the Kharg Island". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 29 (4): 680. doi:10.1017/S1356186319000403. S2CID 213053987.
  7. ^ Potts, D. T. (16 September 2015). "KHARG ISLAND II - History and archeology". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica (Online ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation. PublishedJuly 20, 2004; last updated September 16, 2015
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achaemenid_inscription_in_the_Kharg_Island