---
title: Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/
description: 'A travertine (''Egyptian alabaster'') jar with a short royal inscription: the king''s name and title in cuneiform in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian…'
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce.jpg)

# Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE

A travertine ('Egyptian alabaster') jar with a short royal inscription: the king's name and title in cuneiform in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian, and in Egyptian hieroglyphs. The same short statement, 'Xerxes, the Great King', appears in four languages on one luxury object.

## Text on the object

Original (Multiple) · checked against a source transcription

```
[Languages on the jar: Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian.]
[Old Persian, standard transliteration:] Xšayâršâ XŠ vazraka

[The Elamite, Babylonian and Egyptian versions are not transcribed here.]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Xerxes, the Great King.
```

The Old Persian line is the transliteration Livius.org gives for this vase formula on another Xerxes vase; the signs on this jar cannot be read from the photograph. The English is the Met's title and catalogue reading ('Xerxes, the Great King').

[← Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/)

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