A New Block from the Paikuli Inscription

Prods Oktor Skjrv

(Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA)
A few years ago Professor Bivar showed me photographs of
a hitherto unknown, but beautifully preserved block of the
Paikuli inscription, which I had no difculty identifying as the
missing Middle Persian block E1, which joins directly with the
next block, E2. Professor Bivar then also sent me very good
photographs of the inscription, one of which is published here
(Fig. 1).
I was not planning to publish the inscription, not knowing
its history or whereabouts, although I cited from it in a couple
of articles, when, at a meeting in Paris in May 2005, Albert de
Jong told me it was available on the www with my comments.
It had, in fact, been sold to the Barakat Gallery, London and
Beverly Hills, where a color photo was posted, citing my opin-
ion on the inscription without any attribution (www.barakat-
gallery.com under Near Eastern Art: Sassanid Art). The
owners of the gallery now inform me that a letter had accom-
panied the block when it was ofered for sale, which I suppose
must be the letter I wrote to Professor Bivar. I am therefore
pleased to ofer him my edition of this block as a token of
gratitude and long friendship with him and his wife Leslie.
Among my many pleasant memories of David Bivar, my
fondest memory is of him coming to my rescue one summer I
worked in London. It is a story that bears retelling. I was stay-
ing with my friends Ursula and Nicholas Sims-Williams in
their house at Archway in north London one beautiful and
warm summer, working on the Khotanese manuscripts in the
India Ofce Library. One weekend they went of to play music
on the south coast and I was lef alone. I worked late Friday
and stufed my backpack with heavy books (Baileys Dictionary
and Khotanese Texts), but on my way home stopped for several
pints at the Salisbury on St. Martins Lane. I arrived home
about 11 at night, just as some very heavy warm rain began
falling. I put my key in the lock and turned and was lef with
the end of the key in the hand, the other in the keyhole. I
deemed it too late to try to call friends, and, not wanting to
break any windows and having tried in vain to reach a window
in the back yard with a ladder borrowed from a neighbor, tired
and still slightly intoxicated, I wandered around and fnally
found a police station, where they were singularly unhelpful.
Eventually, I ended up in a dingy hotel with a friendly owner
on the outskirts of London, next to a road with incoming
heavy trafc, which kept me awake most of the night. At least
I was dry. Early Saturday morning I called David Bivar and
explained my situation. It took him a quarter of an hour to
arrive in his car. He took control of the situation, got hold of
a locksmith, and soon I was inside again, an experience
richer.
THE PAIKULI INSCRIPTION
Te monument at Paikuli lies on the Iraqi side of the border
with Iran on a line drawn from Solaimaniya in Iraq and Qasr-
e Shirin in Iran. It was originally a large square tower faced
with limestone blocks. Tere were two inscriptions on oppo-
site sides, one in Middle Persian (Pahlavi) and one in Parthian,
containing the same text. For a more detailed history of the
study of the inscription, see Skjrv (2003, 2005).
In 1844, Major Henry C. Rawlinson had visited the ruins at
Paikuli and made drawings of 32 inscribed blocks, which were
published by E. Tomas in 1868 with the Parthian printed in
Hebrew types and with specially made types for the Middle
Persian. Rawlinsons drawings were published by Helmut
Humbach in 1974.
1

Ernst Herzfeld visited the site for the frst time in the sum-
mer of 1911, when he made a few paper squeezes and photo-
graphs, and he returned to record the monument and the
inscription in the summer of 1913. Te complete edition of 100,
out of an estimated 235 blocks (MPers. 55, Parth. 45), including
Rawlinsons drawings, appeared in 1924.
2
Herzfeld determined
the position of almost all the blocks and read and translated
the inscriptions for the most part correctly.
While the book was being published, Herzfeld made another
trip to Paikuli and recorded an additional 30 blocks (MPers.
20, Parth. 10), which he was never able publish.
3

In 1971, Volker Popp took pictures of the blocks he could fnd,
including several unpublished ones, which were published in
collaboration with Humbach in 1973.
4
Humbach then under-
took a complete new edition, which we published together
between 1980 and 1983.
5
It is worth noting that Herzfelds
arrangement of the blocks proved to be almost correct.
Herzfelds interpretation of the contents and circumstance
of the inscription was basically sound. It was later corrected on
several points by Walter B. Henning, who proposed several
crucial new readings.
6
Finally I proposed a complete interpre-
tation which I presented at the seventh (and last) international
congress for Iranian art and archeology in Munich, September
1976,
7
which was also included in the new complete edition.