The discovery and decipherment of the trilingual cuneiform inscriptions

A scholarly narrative recounts the gradual discovery, copying, and study of the Achaemenian monuments carrying three parallel cuneiform texts, following travellers' reports, archaeological surveys, and publication of inscriptions. It explains the distinctive scripts, the stepwise decipherment of the simplest Persian column which provided the key to the others, and how comparative analysis unlocked Babylonian and related scripts. The account surveys major expeditions, epigraphic methods, and philological breakthroughs, and concludes with the broader linguistic and historical consequences that arose from reading the trilingual texts and the recovery of Babylonian and Sumerian material.