1851.) OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 85 
ideographic or symbolic element continued to occupy a promi- 
nent place, served with unimportant modifications to express the 
languages of all these nations except the Scythians and Persians. 
This was called the First Class of Cuneiform writing. 
The oldest form of it was the Assyrian, dating ¢ perhaps as early as 
2500 B.C. ; and in immediate connexion with that system, not only 
in regard to the forms of the letter, but more particularly as being 
applied to a language closely allied, if not identical, were the alpha- 
bets of Babylon and Chaldea. The alphabets of Susa and Ely- 
mais, although in all probability superior in point of antiquity 
to the Babylonian and Chaldzan, were much further removed 
from the parent Assyrian type in regard to form, and were applied 
to languages of a total different family; while the Armenian again, 
the latest of all the Cuneiform alphabets of the first class, ap- 
proached very closely in form and organization to the Assyrian, 
but was also used to express a language altogether distinct from 
any of the other dialects. The second class of Cuneiform writing 
derived like those of the first class from the Assyrian but more 
remotely and greatly simplified, was appropriated to the language 
of the aboriginal Scythic population of Central Persia; and the 
third class. in which the Cuneiform signs had been at length 
reduced to the representation of a regular literal and phonetic alpha- 
bet, was invented in the time of Cyrus the Great for the use of the 
inhabitants of Persia proper, who were then the dominant tribe in 
western Asia. 
With regard to the languages expressed by these alphabets, Col. 
Rawlinson observed that the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Chaldean 
were closely allied and constituted one of the earliest, if not the 
earliest of the Semitic dialects, of which any traces are now extant. 
The languages preserved in the Inscriptions of Susa, of Elymais, of 
Armenia, and in the centre column of the trilingual tablets of Persia, 
belonged to the Tartar or Allophylian family ; and the Persian closely 
resembled the Vedic Sanscrit. 
After explaining at what periods the different alphabets were used, 
who were the nations using them, and where the monuments, 
revealing to us these records of the early world, have been disco- 
vered, Colonel Rawlinson proceeded to explain and practically to 
illustrate the process of decipherment. 
Copies of two Persian Cuneiform Inscriptions were exhibited 
which had been found at Hamadan (the ancient Ecbatana) and had 
supplied the first elements of decipherment. It was shown that these 
inscriptions were identical, with the exception of certain groupes ; 
and it was further pointed out that the position of the groupes 
thus individualized naturally suggested the idea of proper names 
and indicated a succession of three generations. Historical testimony 
authorized the attribution of the monument in question to the 
line of kings who succeeded Cyrus the Great, and the names accor- 
dingly of Hystaspes, Darius, and Xerxes were applied at hazard to 
