A cuneiform inscription discovered in Russia

29 September 2016

Some fragments of a marble stele bearing a cuneiform inscription in Old Persian have been discovered in the ruins of the ancient site of Phanagoria. The Greek colony, founded in the middle of the sixteenth century BCE, was situated in the Krasnodar province on the northeast coast of the Black Sea, which served as a commercial port lying between the Caucasus and Europe.

It is the first time a cuneiform inscription has been unearthed in Russia. In fact, the texts that employed such script mostly originate from the Middle East: Turkey, Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Cyprus, Bahrain and Egypt.

Only a tenth of the text comprising the inscription is extant and its content suggests that it was commissioned by Darius I, the great Achaemenid king who ruled over Persia between 522 and 486 BCE. In the portion of preserved text, the researchers recognised the name of Ionian city Milet (Miletus) located on the west coast of Anatolia, and they have hypothesised that the stele was erected following the victory of the Persian king over Ionia, which broke out in rebellion between 499 and 493 BCE. In fact, Darius I led a series of military campaigns in the western sector of the empire in order to consolidate the lands conquered by his predecessors Cyrus and Cambyses.

This historic reconstruction does not explain the presence of the stele on the north coast of the Black Sea, unless the fragments of the stele were transported there at a later date by ship, perhaps as ballast. In fact, the type of marble used to carve the stele does not originate from a local source.

The team of archaeologists working at Phanagoria has also brought to light at the huge acropolis (2,500m²) the ruins of the wall of the ancient fortress dating from the end of the fifth century BCE. This ancient construction work could have been carried out in parallel with the vast expedition that Darius I led against the Scythians along the Black Sea in 513 BCE. Much remains to be discovered on the site which, up until the end of the fifth century, was one of the two royal capitals of the Bosporus.

Therefore, the rather surprising discovery of this stele in Russia does not permit us to extend the spread of the use cuneiform script northwards, since the object was originally positioned on the Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. On the other hand, if the latter provenance turns out to be correct, the stele would mark the farthest point towards the west of the script’s spread. In fact, up to the present, the few objects inscribed in cuneiform script — some cylinder seals and an ivory rod — discovered in Greece represent imported items. This is also true of a piece of agate that was discovered around five years ago in Malta; the stone is carved in the shape of a crescent moon and bears a dedication to the god of the Moon.