Old Persian cuneiform

Old Persian cuneiform
Old Persian cuneiform;
	Old Persian cuneiform syllabary (left), and the DNa inscription (part II, right) of Darius the Great (circa 490 BC), in the newly created script
Script type	Semisyllabary
Time period	525 BC – 330 BC
Direction	Left-to-right
Languages	Old Persian
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Xpeo (030), Old Persian
Unicode
Unicode alias	Old Persian
Unicode range	U+103A0–U+103D5 Download "Behistun", a free Old Persian Cuneiform Unicode font, install and refresh the page. If you don't use Firefox or Opera, see the attached page to configure your browser's encoding to Unicode.
	This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

This article contains cuneiform script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of cuneiform script.

Old Persian cuneiform is a semi-alphabetic cuneiform script that was the primary script for Old Persian. Texts written in this cuneiform have been found in Iran (Persepolis, Susa, Hamadan, Kharg Island), Armenia, Romania (Gherla),^[1]^[2]^[3] Turkey (Van Fortress), and along the Suez Canal.^[4] They were mostly inscriptions from the time period of Darius I, such as the DNa inscription, as well as his son, Xerxes I. Later kings down to Artaxerxes III used more recent forms of the language classified as "pre-Middle Persian".^[4]

^ Kuhrt 2013, p. 197.
^ Frye 1984, p. 103.
^ Schmitt 2000, p. 53.
^ ^a ^b Kent, R. G.: "Old Persian: Grammar Texts Lexicon", page 6. American Oriental Society, 1950.