This book represents part of the research conducted by Dr. Salman Aliyari Babolghani (University of Hamburg)1 within the framework of the DARIOSH- Louvre Project, a joint research initiative undertaken by the DARIOSH Project (directed by Prof. Dr. Adriano V. Rossi, âLâOrientaleâ University,2 Naples, and ISMEO,3 Rome) and the Louvre Museum4 (curated by Julien Cuny) with the participation of Prof. Dr. Ela Filippone (University of Tuscia,5 Viterbo), Prof. Dr. Gian Pietro Basello (âLâOrientaleâ University, Naples), Dr. Grazia Giovinazzo (âLâOrientaleâ University, Naples) and Dr. Günter Schweiger (independent scholar). The Project focuses on producing a new edition of the Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions recovered in the ruins of the Achaemenid palaces in Susa whose fragments are now primarily housed at the Louvre Museum, with additional fragments at the Susa (Shush) Museum and the National Museum of Iran (Tehran).
In November 2013 the members of the DARIOSH Project met the then Director (2006â2015) of the Département des antiquités orientales (DAO), Béatrice André-Salvini, who granted access to the materials under the guidance of Cuny (curator of Iran collections, from the Iron Age to the Sasanians) and suggested to involve Schweiger, who had seen the fragments in the Louvre storerooms in the 1980s. André-Salviniâs approval of our joint project, after a careful evaluation of its scientific premises, had been the founding act of our collaboration and it is sad to recall here her death on 2020, November 24. The in-house research started on JanuaryâFebruary 2014 with the first campaign of documentation in the Louvre storerooms. The first estimate of ca. 150 fragments grew quickly as further campaigns (March and July 2016, May 2018, July 2019, and January 2020) took place, reaching the number of more than 450 fragments catalogued today. The in-house work alternated with the research done remotely using the photographic documentation, attributing single fragments to the known inscriptions and isolating also a number of fragments belonging to previously unrecognized inscriptions. This implied the comparison with the previous publications but also with archival materials like the excavation photographs in the Louvre archives (ARCHAO) discovered by Cuny.
Until 2018 the epigraphic documentation was mainly collected by Basello, Cuny, and Schweiger, while Filippone and Rossi examined single relevant fragments.
Besides the epigraphic work, Cuny carried on a research on the materiality of the fragments and embarked on the mission of formulating hypotheses about their archaeological context, supplementing the lack of contextual information perusing the past archaeological reports and using the physical appearance of the excavation labels as an approximate indication of the excavation year. Cuny also added to the investigated corpus the inscribed terracotta bricks starting from 2016. Here too it appeared immediately that they were much more than previously documented. In the meantime, Marielle Pic took the position of DAO Director (2015â2021), followed by Dr. Ariane Thomas (2021 on). Both have supported in every possible way our research, sharing our aims and including them in the DAO scientific agenda.
Dr. Aliyari has been actively involved in the research since March 2018 under the supervision of Professors Rossi, Basello, and Filippone. Initially, his focus was exclusively on this work for the first three and a half years. Dr. Aliyariâs participation in the project was co-financed at the University of Tuscia by DISUCOM and ISMEO, in the form of a three year postdoc grant. Subsequently, he continued his collaboration, albeit with reduced intensity, due to a new project he embarked upon at the University of Hamburg.
Aliyariâs work commenced with the study of fragments housed at the Louvre Museum. During the initial year and a half, he conducted preliminary examinations of all fragments in Old Persian, Achaemenid Elamite, and Achaemenid Babylonian. This phase resulted in the revision of several previous readings and attributions of fragments to specific inscriptions. The unpublished fragments (in three versions) the scholar discovered during this period were similarly examined and attributed to their appropriate inscriptions as far as possible within this phase of research.
The inclusion of the epigraphic materials from Susa still in Iran was one of the aims of the DARIOSH Project since its beginning, and this met with the will of the Louvre to strengthen the relationships with the Cultural Heritage Base of Susa, the Shush branch of the Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization.
Therefore, DARIOSH sent Aliyari to Iran to undertook a similar preliminary investigation of fragments (in three versions) housed at the Susa Museum and the National Museum of Iran. This happened also thanks to the scientific network established by ISMEO and to the missions to Shush made in the past 20 years by the Louvre and DARIOSH independently. We would like to emphasize the effective collaboration of Hadi Mirvali (director of the Susa Museum), Ali Buyeri (director of the Susa World Heritage Site), and the archaeologist Loghman Ahmadzadeh (Susa World Heritage Site, who also provided relevant and urgent data during the COVID-19 Pandemic). For the fieldwork in the National Museum of Iran, we are indebted to Dr. Jebrael Nokandeh (Director) and Simin Piran. The process of formulating arguments and preparing each inscription for publication is ongoing and requires further time.
The present contributions (i.e. the five chapters of this volume excluding the Introduction) were written and periodically revised from 2019 onwards, and they were initially intended to be published as independent articles. Dr. Aliyariâs work on the final paragraphs of DSe/OP (Ch. 1) was completed earlier than the others, and a preliminary version was presented at the Ninth European Conference of Iranian Studies (ECIS 9) at the Freie Universität Berlin in September 2019. The first draft of the survey on terracotta brick inscriptions DSa, DSb, DSk, DSl, and DSae (Ch. 2) was also written in the same year. However, the Author did not prepare a publishable version of these two manuscripts, opting instead to focus on the DSi, DSj, and A²Se inscriptions (Ch. 3, 4, and 5). The work on these three inscriptions, along with others attributed to them, was ready for publication in 2020â2021, but their release was delayed due to many different reasons. Dr. Aliyari had already submitted the articles on DSi and A²Se to the journals Dabir and Studia Persica, respectively, in 2023,6 when the DARIOSH group determined that it would be more appropriate to publish this portion of contributions on the inscriptions7 âthe present workâas an independent monograph (being the third volume in the series DARIOSH Studies started in 2012 with DARIOSH Studies I and II). Since then, the Authorâs views on certain minor details may have evolved slightly, even if, in this study, he has opted to maintain his interpretations in their original form. These interpretations have been discussed in every detail, inscription by inscription and language by language, between the Author and the other members of the DARIOSH Project, whose individual interpretations can sometimes differ, even if in the vast majority of cases there has been a total coincidence of their views.
The second part of the volume (DARIOSH Studies III/2), currently in preparation, will complement the first part hosting contributions by other members of the project on the materiality (Cuny) and philology (Basello, Filippone, Rossi) of the same inscriptions. The global aim of this volume in two parts is to publish single case studies whose investigation is already completed.
The following step will be the publication of the complete edition of all the Achaemenid inscriptions in the Louvre Museum, both on stone and clay, in the three languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian). This edition will represent the result of the main effort of the members of the joint project since its beginning. The edition will include full transliteration and translation of all the fragments and inscriptions in the Louvre.
We are happy that, through the efforts of the Louvre-DARIOSH Project, at least a small part of the epigraphic materials from Shush/Susaâ60 out of 452 kept in the Louvre, so 13%, less than a seventhâstart now to be rejoined, even if virtually. This is what this volume, thanks to a young Iranian scholar, does, more than one century after their excavation and consequent scattering in different museums and institutions.
Julien Cuny and Adriano V. Rossi
ParisâRome, September 2024
Universität Hamburg. Dr. Aliyariâs participation in the project was co-financed by DISUCOM (University of Tuscia) and ISMEO.
Università degli Studi di Napoli âLâOrientaleâ.
ISMEOâThe International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies, Rome.
Musée du Louvre.
Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Viterbo.
The articles were subsequently withdrawn.
Those pertaining to philological discussions about Old Persian and Achaemenid Elamite are being published as articles (see Aliyari Babolghani 2024a, 2024b, and in press).