Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/125

 face of the rock about vsixtv feet above the around. It was divided into three columns, each column consisting of twenty-seven lines. Unfortunately, Schulz was murdered in 1829, and his papers ultimately found their way into the hands of M. Lajard of Paris, by whom they were sent to M. St. Martin for publication St. Martin, as we shall see, had early busied himself with cuneiform inscriptions, but in consequence of his early death, the papers of Schulz fell into the possession of the very eminent Orientalist Burnouf, by whom they were used with singular ability. The inscriptions found at Mount Elvend and at Van became the subject of his 'Mémoire sur deux Inscriptions,' which appeared in 1830, and which marked the first great advance in cuneiform decipherment that had taken place since the memorable effort of Grotefend thirtv-four vears before.

Till the publication of Burnoufs essay in 1836, the task of decipherment had made but small progress, and so far as we are aware, no copy of a Persian inscription had yet been published that had been taken by anyone with the smallest knowledge of the meaning of the characters. Mr. Rich, the British Resident at Bagdad, was, however, a zealous student of Grotefend, and in constant correspondence with him. He kept him supplied with copies of the few inscriptions that were then brought to light from the ruined mounds of Mosul and Hillah. His German secretary Bellino, who was also much interested in cuneiform discoveries, generally acted as the medium of communication; and Grotefend's later pamphlets are full of recognition of the services he had received from both scholars. Rich was a man of very unusual attainments. When still