Behistun Inscription
E136845
The Behistun Inscription is a monumental multilingual rock relief commissioned by Darius the Great in present-day Iran, whose cuneiform texts were crucial in deciphering Old Persian and other ancient Near Eastern scripts.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Behistun Inscription canonical | 19 |
| Bisotun inscription | 3 |
| Behistun cliff face | 1 |
| Studies of the Behistun Inscription | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1192082 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Behistun Inscription Context triple: [Old Persian, notableInscription, Behistun Inscription]
-
A.
Cyrus Cylinder
The Cyrus Cylinder is an ancient clay artifact inscribed with a proclamation by the Persian king Cyrus the Great, often regarded as an early charter of human rights and a key source on his policies toward conquered peoples.
-
B.
Stele of Novilara
The Stele of Novilara is an ancient inscribed stone monument from the Picene region of Italy, bearing one of the most significant and enigmatic examples of the North Picene language.
-
C.
Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone is an ancient granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree in three scripts that provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.
-
D.
Canggal inscription
The Canggal inscription is an early 8th-century Sanskrit stone inscription from Central Java that records the establishment of a Shivaic lingam and provides one of the earliest written attestations of the Medang (Mataram) Kingdom.
-
E.
Standard of Ur
The Standard of Ur is an ancient Sumerian artifact from around 2600–2400 BCE, a richly inlaid wooden box depicting scenes of war and peace that offers key insights into early Mesopotamian society.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Behistun Inscription Target entity description: The Behistun Inscription is a monumental multilingual rock relief commissioned by Darius the Great in present-day Iran, whose cuneiform texts were crucial in deciphering Old Persian and other ancient Near Eastern scripts.
-
A.
Cyrus Cylinder
The Cyrus Cylinder is an ancient clay artifact inscribed with a proclamation by the Persian king Cyrus the Great, often regarded as an early charter of human rights and a key source on his policies toward conquered peoples.
-
B.
Stele of Novilara
The Stele of Novilara is an ancient inscribed stone monument from the Picene region of Italy, bearing one of the most significant and enigmatic examples of the North Picene language.
-
C.
Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone is an ancient granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree in three scripts that provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.
-
D.
Canggal inscription
The Canggal inscription is an early 8th-century Sanskrit stone inscription from Central Java that records the establishment of a Shivaic lingam and provides one of the earliest written attestations of the Medang (Mataram) Kingdom.
-
E.
Standard of Ur
The Standard of Ur is an ancient Sumerian artifact from around 2600–2400 BCE, a richly inlaid wooden box depicting scenes of war and peace that offers key insights into early Mesopotamian society.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
World Heritage Site
ⓘ
multilingual rock relief ⓘ royal inscription ⓘ |
| commissionedBy |
Darius the Great
ⓘ
linked to:
Darius I of Persia
|
| constructionStart | circa 522 BCE ⓘ |
| country | Iran ⓘ |
| creator | Darius I of Persia ⓘ |
| culture | Persian ⓘ |
| dateOfCreation | circa 520 BCE ⓘ |
| decipheredBy | Henry Creswicke Rawlinson ⓘ |
| deciphermentDate | mid-19th century ⓘ |
| dedicatedTo | Ahura Mazda ⓘ |
| depicts |
Darius I standing on a prostrate figure
ⓘ
bound rebel leaders in a row ⓘ winged symbol associated with Ahura Mazda ⓘ |
| describes |
accession of Darius I
ⓘ
defeat of multiple pretenders to the Persian throne ⓘ |
| elevationAboveGround | about 100 meters ⓘ |
| height | approximately 15 meters ⓘ |
| heritageDesignation | UNESCO World Heritage Site ⓘ |
| influenced |
decipherment of Akkadian
ⓘ
decipherment of Elamite ⓘ decipherment of Old Persian ⓘ development of Assyriology ⓘ |
| inscriptionType | trilingual inscription ⓘ |
| language |
Babylonian
ⓘ
Elamite ⓘ Old Persian ⓘ |
| locatedIn |
Bisotun
ⓘ
Iran ⓘ Kermanshah Province ⓘ |
| locatedOn | cliff face of Mount Behistun ⓘ |
| materialUsed | limestone rock face ⓘ |
| near |
ancient road between Babylon and Ecbatana
ⓘ
modern town of Bisotun ⓘ |
| partOf | Achaemenid Empire ⓘ |
| period | Achaemenid period ⓘ |
| region | ancient Media ⓘ |
| scriptType |
Akkadian cuneiform
ⓘ
Elamite cuneiform ⓘ Old Persian cuneiform ⓘ |
| significance |
key to decipherment of cuneiform scripts
ⓘ
primary source for early reign of Darius I ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
legitimization of Darius I’s rule
ⓘ
royal propaganda ⓘ |
| UNESCOWorldHeritageSiteId | 1222 ⓘ |
| UNESCOWorldHeritageSiteInscriptionDate | 2006 ⓘ |
| width | approximately 25 meters ⓘ |
| writingSystem | cuneiform ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Behistun Inscription Description of subject: The Behistun Inscription is a monumental multilingual rock relief commissioned by Darius the Great in present-day Iran, whose cuneiform texts were crucial in deciphering Old Persian and other ancient Near Eastern scripts.
Referenced by (24)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Behistun Inscription
linked to: Behistun Inscription
linked to: Behistun Inscription
subject linked to:
"Ahuramazda"
linked to: Behistun Inscription
linked to: Behistun Inscription