Rasool Bashash Kanzaq
Abstract
The terminology of "Middle Persian" or "Parsic" for Sassanian inscriptions and writings are well known within the Iranian and foreign scholars of linguistics and archaeologists. But ...
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The terminology of "Middle Persian" or "Parsic" for Sassanian inscriptions and writings are well known within the Iranian and foreign scholars of linguistics and archaeologists. But there is a special kind of Sassanian and early Islamic writing, which used to be very easy to inscribe at that time (7and 9A.D) but very difficult for deciphering and the Pahlavi readers which is called "Cursive Pahlavi". From this kind of Pahlavi inscriptions and writings we possess some texts on papyrus and parchment, belonging to the period of Sassanian king of Khosro Parviz, who conquered Egypt for about 9 years (619-628A.D). Some of these texts were deciphered and published by Olaf Hanson in 1938 in the book entitled "Die mittelpersischen Papyri der Papyrussammlung der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin". And another groups are written on broken potteries called Ostraca (pl.of Ostracon), a small number of which were explored by Erich Schmidt and George Miles in 1936 and were published in 1976 by Deborah Thompson in her book "Stucco from Chal Tarkhan-Eshqabad, near Rayy". In 1926 some of the same types were found by Ernest Herzfeld from a district near Varamin which were called "Ostraca from Near Varamin". In 1957 the images of Herzfeld’s findings were published with no decipherments by de Menasce in "CII.VOL.IV-V" though in 1992 most of them were translated and published by Dieter Weber in" CII. Part III Pahlavi Inscriptions, Ostraca, Papyri und Pergamente Textband". "The Ostracon from Hegmataneh" which is discussed and presented here has been explored by Mohammad Rahim Sarraf director of Hegmataneh Excavation Project in 1984. This Ostracon is the same type as Ostraca found from Chal-Tarkhan Eshqabad near Rayy; around Varamin; Teppe-mill-e Varamin and Qasr-e Abu Nasr in Shiraz.
