COMMUNICATIONS 
TO THE 
MONTHLY MEETINGS 
OF THE 
YORKSHIRE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 
1871. 
April 4th.— A paper, by the Rev. J. Kenrick, was 
read explanatory of the cast of the Obelisk of Nemroud, pre¬ 
sented by him to the Museum, and placed in the vestibule. 
He said the character found not only on the remains of Perse- 
polis, but in various parts of Persia and Media, and still more 
profusely in Assyria and Babylonia, is formed from a very 
simple element, a stroke which, when elaborately made, re¬ 
sembles the head of an arrow, when less carefully, a nail or a 
wedge, cuneus. Hence it has been variously designated as 
arrow-headed, nail-headed, or cuneiform, the last name being 
now generally adopted. Two of those strokes are joined 
together by the broad end, forming a character resembling a 
pair of compasses partly opened; but with this exception the 
letters are formed not by the junction but by the juxta-position 
or superposition of the strokes, so that many of them occupy a 
large space. This description applies only to the Persian form 
of the cuneiform character; the Assyrian and Babylonian are 
often very complex. It was by investigating the simpler, the 
Persian form, that the discovery of the alphabet was accom¬ 
plished. 
It is unnecessary to enumerate the abortive attempts made 
for this purpose by those who had only such imperfect copies 
before them as the early travellers in the east could furnish. 
But when Niebuhr, the father of the historian, had brought 
back accurate copies, European scholars turned their attention 
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