Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/387

358 in the third Persepolitan column was identical with the former, or cursive, style, and that its title to be called the ' Babylonian column ' was therefore incontestable.

The only predecessor he will allow to have had in

this inquiry is Gi-otefend, who has discovered, he says,

that the Babylonian cliaracters are partly syllabic and

partly literal; and that 'certain lapidary characters

correspond to certain cursive ones.' Grotefend, he

adds, may also have discovered the values of about ten

cursive (characters correctly, and possibly of ten others

approximately. But he was not aware that ' several

equivalent cliaracters might be in use to represent the

same letter or syllable.' ^ Hincks was, however, more

adequately supplied with materials to work with.

Besides the Persepolitan inscriptions which he had the

advantajre to study in the more perfect copies of

Westergaard, he had also access to the list of provinc^es

at Naksh-i-Eustam lately copied by the same traveller.

The discovery that a clay cylinder published by Porter

reproduced in cursive characters a portion of the East

India House inscription written in the lapidary style

had, as we have alieady seen, enabled him to compare

tof]fether seventy-six simis in the two diflerent modes of

writing. These lie now attempted to classify accorduig

to what he considered to l)e their values. The Table is

the first of the kind that appeared, and is consequently

of very exceptional interest. His decipherment was

based in the usual manner upon a c(miparison between

the proper names in the Ikbylonian and those in the

Persian column. ' Jiut,' he says, ' even more [values]

were determined by comparing different modes of

writing the same word.' His success, so ftir as it goes,

is certainly remarkal)le. He recognises correctly the

' M)ii the Tlirt'e Kinds of Persepolitan ^y^iting/ read Nov. and Dec- 1846: Tmn^. It. 1, Acad. xxi. 24i>.