]
The photograph is taken from M. de Morgan's _Delegation en
Perse_, Mem., t. vi, pi. 2.
The main part of the inscription is written in Semitic Babylonian,
and below there is an addition to the text written in proto-Elamite
characters, probably enumerating the offerings which the
Karibu-sha-Shushinak decreed should be made for the future in honour
of the god.* In course of time this proto-Elamite system of writing by
means of ideographs seems to have died out, and a modified form of the
Babylonian system was adopted by the Elamites for writing their own
language phonetically. It is in this phonetic character that the
so-called "Anzanite" texts of the later Elamite princes were composed.
*We have assumed that both inscriptions were the work of
Karibu-sha-Shushinak. But it is also possible that the
second one in proto-Elamite characters was added at a later
period. From its position on the stone it is clear that it
was written after and not before Karibu-sha-Shushinak's
inscription in Semitic Babylonian. See the photographic
reproduction.
Karibu-sha-Shushinak, whose recently discovered bilingual inscription
has been referred to above, was one of the earlier of the subject
princes of Elam, and he probably reigned at Susa not later than B.C.
3000.
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