Note 647 — Chapter V · DECIPHERMENT OF THE SECOND OR SUSIAN COLUMN—WESTERGAARD TO OPPERT—A.D. 1844-52

Journal Asiatique, xiv. 212: ‘Que certains signes de l’écriture médique avaient une assez grande ressemblance avec les signes Persans de même valeur, mais que la plupart d’entre eux étaient identiques avec des signes de l’écriture Assyrienne.’ Hincks had already pointed out, in 1845, that there were many characters common to both (Trans. R. I. Acad. xxi. 131); and in June 1849 he added that a ‘very large proportion of the Median characters can be identified with Assyrio-Babylonian characters, having nearly the same phonetic values’ (xxii. 4). Westergaard thought the writing originated in Babylon, ‘whence it spread in two branches, eastward to Susiana and northward to the Assyrian Empire, from whence it passed to Media, and last to ancient Persis’ (p. 273, Copenhagen edition). He thought the Median bore most resemblance to Assyrian writing, and Persian to Babylonian writing (ib. p. 272; cf. Bonn edition, p. 4).