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Secondary sourceBook1873

Records of the Past, Volume 2

Samuel Birch · 1873

A 19th-century English translation series of ancient Near Eastern inscriptions, including Persian royal texts connected to Darius I.

This volume contains translations of ancient inscriptions, including Persian royal texts linked to Darius I's reign.

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Records of the Past, Volume 2
Samuel Birch (ed.), Records of the Past, vol. 2, 1873. Internet Archive scan.

About this source

What it is

This is a volume of Records of the Past, a 19th-century series publishing English translations of ancient Egyptian and western Asian inscriptions. It was edited under the Society of Biblical Archaeology, with contributions including those of scholars such as Arthur Amiaud, and published in 1873.

Why it matters

Volumes like this made cuneiform and other ancient inscriptions, including royal Persian texts attributed to rulers such as Darius I, available to English readers long before modern translations. They show how 19th-century scholars worked to decode and share ancient voices.

Look closer

  • Why might translators in the 1800s have been excited to read royal inscriptions for the first time?
  • What might be lost or changed when an ancient text is translated into English?
  • Who decided which inscriptions were worth translating and publishing?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Darius the Great on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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