Henry Rawlinson

Henry Rawlinson
Name	Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson
Caption	Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet
Birth date	5 April 1810
Birth place	Chadlington, Oxfordshire, England
Death date	5 March 1895
Death place	London, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Diplomat, Assyriologist, Army officer
Known for	Decipherment of the Behistun Inscription, contributions to cuneiform studies and Ancient Babylon history

Henry Rawlinson

Henry Rawlinson was a 19th‑century British diplomat, army officer and Assyriologist whose work on royal inscriptions and cuneiform texts played a central role in reconstructing the history of Mesopotamia and Ancient Babylon. His copying and partial decipherment of the Behistun Inscription and publication of transliterations and translations influenced later scholars of the Ancient Near East and institutions such as the British Museum and the Royal Asiatic Society.

Early Life and Education

Rawlinson was born in Chadlington, Oxfordshire in 1810 into an English family with military connections. He was educated with a practical emphasis suitable for colonial and diplomatic service rather than a university classical training, receiving instruction in languages and surveying that prepared him for service with the British East India Company. His early postings to India and subsequent transfer to Persia (modern Iran) provided field experience in epigraphy and antiquarian observation that later informed his work on Mesopotamian and Babylonian sources. Contacts formed in the diplomatic corps and with local Persian scholars facilitated his access to inscriptions and manuscripts.

Assyriology and Cuneiform Studies

During the mid‑19th century Rawlinson became a central figure in the emergent field of Assyriology. He focused on deciphering cuneiform writing, then a largely undeciphered script found across sites of the former Neo-Assyrian Empire and Neo-Babylonian Empire. Rawlinson corresponded and collaborated with scholars such as Edward Hincks, Georg Friedrich Grotefend (whose earlier work informed the field), and Julius Oppert. He contributed to philological methods by publishing transcriptions and proposed readings for Old Persian cuneiform and related forms, and he aided collections development at the British Museum and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge collections by sending copies and casts of inscriptions.

Decipherment of the Behistun Inscription

Rawlinson's most famous achievement was his work on the Behistun Inscription, a multilingual royal monument erected by Darius the Great on a cliff in western Iran. While serving near Kermanshah, Rawlinson made hand copies and later copies of the Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian (Akkadian) sections of the inscription. He published his readings in a series of papers and the important multi‑volume work that rendered significant portions of the inscriptions into readable form. His identification of proper names and royal titles in the Old Persian column and his comparative method—cross‑referencing with Herodotus and known Persian royal lists—allowed him and contemporaries to unlock the cuneiform phonetic system. The decipherment of Behistun provided a key for reading other Akkadian and Babylonian inscriptions, enabling access to primary sources for Babylonian chronology and royal annals.

Contributions to Understanding Ancient Babylonian History

Rawlinson used inscriptions, king lists, and comparative epigraphy to reconstruct aspects of Babylonian political history, including the reigns of successive Chaldean and Neo‑Babylonian kings. His transcriptions of Babylonian portions of Behistun and other texts shed light on the administrative language of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and its successor states, and he emphasized continuity between Assyrian and Babylonian archives. Rawlinson published translations and commentaries on royal inscriptions that informed reconstructions of Babylonian campaigns, building projects, and diplomatic relations with Elam and Media. His work influenced later chronological schemes used by scholars such as George Smith and institutions compiling the corpus of Mesopotamian texts.

Diplomatic Career and Archaeological Access in Mesopotamia

As a British East India Company officer and later diplomat in Persia and the wider region, Rawlinson's official role afforded him physical access to monuments and the ability to commission local assistants and artists to copy inscriptions. He served as a political agent and worked within networks including the British Embassy, Tehran and various consular posts. His status facilitated the transfer of casts, copies, and sometimes original artifacts to the British Museum and to private collections in Britain, thereby shaping European museum holdings relevant to Babylonian studies. Rawlinson's career exemplified the 19th‑century interplay between imperial diplomacy and antiquarian scholarship that opened Mesopotamian sources to Western science.

Scholarly Works and Legacy in Ancient Near East Studies

Rawlinson authored major publications on cuneiform and Persian inscriptions, including editions of the Behistun texts and papers in the transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society and the Philological Society. His efforts helped establish Assyriology as a rigorous discipline and laid groundwork used by later excavators at Nineveh, Nimrud, Babylon and other sites. While later work refined or corrected some of his readings, his pioneering methods in epigraphy, comparative linguistics, and the compilation of royal inscriptions remain influential. His legacy is preserved in institutional collections (notably the British Museum), in the history of the Decipherment of cuneiform, and in continuing scholarly editions of Babylonian texts used by historians of the Ancient Near East.

Category:1810 births Category:1895 deaths Category:British diplomats Category:Assyriologists