Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/772

* CUNEIFOKM INSCBIPTIONS. 664 CUNHA. grams and seven determinatives. The type of this script, like the New Susian, forms a Ivind of transition between the Assyro-Babylonian and the Old Persian, since it has partly given up the syllabic system and often approximates the alphabetic form. Some of the determinatives, as those for god and man, and the numerical system, are borrowed from the Assyro-Babylo- nian system of writing. Old Persian. The most simple of all the cuneiform systems, and the one which, as stated above, gave the key to all the others, is the Old Persian. This is em|)loyed from the sixth to the Jourth century B.C. in the tablets of the AchiE- menians, Darius the Great, Xerxes, Artaxerxes I., II., and III., and Cyrus the Younger, together with a few seals of private persons. By far the most important text is that of Darius at Behis- tun. which is about four hundred and thirteen lines long. Other inscriptions, some of them of great value, are found at Persepolis, Susa, Naqs- i-Rustam, Elvand, Kirman, Hamadan, and Murghab. In addition, there are shorter tablets at Van, where the most important Armenian in- scriptions exist, and at Suez. The trilingual in- scription of Behistun was known to Diodorus Siculus (q.v. ) in the first century B.C., who says that the deeds of Semiramis were carved there 'in Syrian letters.' The Old Persian cuneiform characters are almost entirely alphabetic, each sign standing either for a vowel or for a conso- nant plus a vowel. Traces of the earlier syllabic system may perhaps exist in the ease of charac- ters which, like some of those found in the Armenian inscriptions, have different forms ac- cording to the following vowel, as >-Y^, /"> but *~^ . ji- The alph.ibet possesses thirty- six letters, in addition to which there are four ideograms, for king, land, earth, and Ormazd. Polj'phones and homophones are altogether lack- ing, and the only possible trace of a determina- tive is in the oblique wedge, already mentioned as the first character of any cuneiform alphabet to be deciphered, which marks the end of a word. While it is obvious that the Old Persian alpha- bet is derived from the later Assyro-Babylonian signs, iust as the Acha'menians were strongly influenced in their literary style by their non- Iranian predecessors, it is nevertheless not an easy task to trace the direct lineage of the letters of the single Iranian cuneiform alphabet to their Semitic originals. There still remain a number of Old Persian inscriptions which have never been published or even copied or photographed. It is not im- possible that future investigations will add new Armenian tablets, or even Xew Susian texts, w-hile it is practically certain that continued ex- cavations will bring to light large masses of Sumerian and Assyro-Babylonian cuneiform in- scriptions. The difference in the various alpha- bets of this system may be illustrated by re- producing the name of Darius in Old Persian. Darai/avntish ; New Susian, Tariyoraush : and Babylonian, Darh/avtish : OLD PERBIAN. ^Hr HfTK ^^/t m^ < ^rr NEW SUSIAN. m -uo e=r! h-k BABYLONIAN. BiBLlOGR.PHY. Taylor, History of the Alpha- bet (New York, 1900) ; Faulmann, Oeschichte der Schrift (Vienna, 1880) ; Gobineau, Traite lies ccritures cunciforincs (Paris, 1864) ; Jle- nant, Le syllabaire ussyrien (Paris, 1869-73) ; Les ccritures cuniifornies (Paris, 1864) ; Ele- ments d'epigraphie assyrienne (Paris, 1880) ; Schrader, Keilinschriften und Geschichtsfor- schnng (Giessen, 1872) ; Die assyrisch-hahy- lonischen KeiUnschriften ('Leipzig, 1872) ; Cunei- form Inscriptions and the Old Testament (Eng. trans., London, 1897) ; Hommel, Geschichte Baby- loniens und Assyriens (Berlin, 1885) ; Strass- maier, Alphabetisches Verzeichniss der assyri- schen und akkadischen Worter (Leipzig, 1882- 86) ; Amiaud and Mgchineau, Tableau compart des ecritures babylonicnnes et assyriennes (Paris, 1887) ; Bertin, Orainmar of the Cuneiform In- scriptions (London, 1888) ; Briinnow, Classified Lists of All Simple and Compound Cuneiform Id-eoyraphs (3 vols., Lej-den, 1887-97) ; Delitzsch, Entstehung des dltesten Schriftsystems, oder der Ursprung der Keilschriftzeichen (Leipzig, 1898) ; BeitrSge zur Entzifferung und Erkliirung der kappadokischen Keilschrifttafeln (Leipzig, 1893) ; Tliureau-Dangin, Reeherches sur I'ori- gine de Vccriture cunciforme (Paris, 1898-99)-; Sayce, "Cuneiform Inscriptions of Van," in Jour- nal of the Royal Asiatic Society, new series xiv. ; Sandalgian, Les inscriptions cuniiformes urar- tiques (Venice, 1900) ; Oppert, Le peuple et la laiigue des iledes (Paris, 1879) ; ^Yeissbach, Achiimenideninschriften ztvciter Art (Leipzig, 1890) ; "Altpersische Inschriften," in Geiger and Kuhn's Grundriss der iranischen Philologie (Strassburg. 1896) : Spiegel, Altpersische Keil- inschriften (Leipzig, 1881). CUNENE, See Kuxene. CtTNEO, koo'na-6 ( dialectically called Cont). The capital of the province of the same name in North Italy, situated .5.5 miles south of Turin on a hill at the confluence of the Stura and the Gesso (Map: Italy, B 3). The town has a twelfth-century Franciscan church, a cathedral, and a city hall with a high tower. It markets grain, silk, and hemp in Lombardy, Switzerland, and Germany, and manufactures paper and fab- rics of silk and wool. On account of its strategic importance as the key to the upper plains of Piedmont, and to the road that leads to Nice and Provence, Cuneo has often been besieged since it came into possession of the House of Savoy in 1382. Population (commune), in 1881, 24,853; in 1901, 27.065. Consult Bertano, Storia di Cnneo (Cuneo, 1898). C.1540). head of in com- erwards distin- 1514 he to Pope Upon CUNHA, koo'nya, Tristao da (1460- A Portuguese navigator. He was at the an expedition to Africa and the Indies pany with Affonso d'Albuquerque. Aft he fought in Madagascar, and he was guished for his conduct in the East. In was made special ambassador to present Leo X. the new possessions of Portugal