ISBN 978-92-3-102846-5
Contents
Old Persian, Imperial Aramaic,. . .
16 LANGUAGES AND SCRIPTS IN GRAECO-BACTRIA AND THE SAKA KINGDOMS* J. Harmatta
Contents Old Persian, Imperial Aramaic, Old Bactrian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
386
The survival of Aramaic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
390
The language of ancient Bactria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
391
Greek language and script in Central Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
394
The language of the Southern Sakas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
398
Old Persian, Imperial Aramaic, Old Bactrian Script and writing appeared in eastern Iran long before the Yüeh-chih conquest of Bactria. Under Darius I, Old Persian administration and chancellery practice had probably been introduced into the eastern Achaemenid satrapies. This involved the use of the Old Persian language and cuneiform script, and the adoption of the Aramaic language and script as intermediary instruments of communication between administrative centres. The royal weight inscribed with an Old Persian cuneiform text from Bost (modern Qal‘˘a-i Bist in Afghanistan) shows this development, even though it was prepared at the royal court in western Iran; and the borrowing by the Prakrit languages of such important terms as Old Persian dipi- (document), nipis- (to write) and nipistam . (inscription) clearly proves the use of Old Persian in the Indus territories belonging to the Achaemenid Empire at that time. *
See Map 3.
386
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