Wiechmann, Yannick A. 2025. Semographische Aspekte in der altpersischen Keilschrift: Lokale Schreibtraditionen und sakrale Sinnstiftung? Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 116: 217-241.
This paper deals with aspects of semography in the Old Persian script. The so-called ideograms or logograms were quite neglected in former studies on Old Persian. From a graphematic perspective, this study opts to call these signs semograms for a broader view beyond mere logography. Further, it is asked whether we can observe dia-chronic or diatopic developments in the usage of these signs. While most semograms were probably developed in the time of Darius I, most of them went out of use after his reign, but were reactivated beginning with Darius II with a peak in the time of Artaxerxes II. Although semograms are totally absent in Old Persian inscriptions in some places)Bīsutūn, Elvend and Naqš-i Rostam), the sign for “King” was used in many places. The other signs, though, are rather limited to Susa and Hagmatāna. Finally, it is asked why semograms do exist at all. While it seems not convincing to explain their existence with the economy of writing, they fit quite well in the royal ideology and may provide sacrality. In the context of the old, traditional and sacral writing systems of the Achaemenid Empire)especially Mesopotamian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs), they provided an important feature to the Old Persian script which it originally lacked and which could become quite obvious when trilingual and quadrilingual inscriptions were designed.
