Ricerc@Sapienza

Il contributo si articola in una presentazione introduttiva alla glittica sasanide e alle sue caratteristiche morfologiche (p. 11 del catalogo), e le schede relative a 6 sigilli privati, di cui uno recante un'epigrafe in mediopersiano in grafia lapidaria (pp. 53-54).

The commemorative monument of Paikuli was built by the Sasanian king Narseh (293-302 / 3 AD) next to
the southern pass of the Qaradagh mountain range, about 100 km from the nowadays city of Sulaimaniyah.
The bilingual inscription (Middle Persian and Parthian), originally engraved on two walls of the structure,
specifies both the choice of the site and the historical context related to the monument construction. This
epigraphic evidence represents indeed one of the most significant internal sources on the early Sassanian period.

I suggest a partial revision of MacKenzie's transcription of the Book Pahlavi script, with a special regard for the sequences ‹-lg› and ‹-lkꞌ› at the end of the word. In MacKenzie's approach these two spellings are interpreted in many different ways, without a clear distributional rule. In the approach suggested here two well-defined readings — respectively as [rg] and [rag/lag] — are established on the ground of synchronic morphology, etymology and the outcomes in New Persian.

In the present paper it is argued that the Middle Persian voicing of OIr. *‑k‑ in post-vocalic position occurred only after the voicing of the other two Old Iranian voiceless stops. This claim is suggested by a closer inspection of the treatment of the outcomes of OIr. *‑k‑ in Middle Persian of the Pahlavi Books, in Manichaean Middle Persian, in New Persian, and in the parallel tradition represented by the Greek versions of the Sasanian multilingual inscriptions.

First edition of two previously unknown Middle Persian inscriptions from the region of Fars in Iran.

A revision of MacKenzie's transcription of the Pahlavi script is suggested as regards the final sequences ‹-lg› and ‹-lk?›. While MacKenzie reads the two spellings in many different ways, without a clear distributional rule, the suggestion is to read them in two well-defined ways (respectively as [rg] and [rag/lag]), depending on the synchronic morphology, etymology and the outcomes in New Persian.