Jar of Xerxes I
Jar of Xerxes I
Jar of Xerxes I from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.
Detail of the inscription in Egyptian: "The great king Xerxes".
The Jar of Xerxes I is a jar in calcite or alabaster, an alabastron, with the quadrilingual signature of Achaemenid ruler Xerxes I (ruled 486–465 BC), which was discovered in the ruins of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, in Caria, modern Turkey, at the foot of the western staircase.[1] It is now in the British Museum (Room 15).[2]
Description[]
The jar contains the same short inscription in Old Persian, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Elamite:[1][3][4]