نسخه چيني منشور كوروش
ردپاي هخامنشيان در چين پيدا شد
مدت‌هاست كپي چيني توليدات مختلف، از وسايل برقي گرفته تا انواع خشكبار، بازار ايران را فتح كرده است؛ اما اين بار چيني‌ها اثري را در حوزه باستان‌شناسي رو كرده‌اند كه با ساير توليدات آنها فرق دارد؛ «نسخه چيني منشور كوروش».
اين اثر برخلاف ساير محصولات آنان ظاهرا اصل است و تاريخ ساخت آن احتمالا به حدود سال‌هاي حكمراني كوروش كبير بازمي‌گردد.
ماجرا از اين قرار است كه 2 قطعه استخوان فسيل شده اسب بتاز‌گي در چين شناسايي شده كه از قرار معلوم حاوي رونوشتي خلاصه شده از منشور كوروش است. اين اثر در ازاء هر 20 نگاره ميخي استوانه كوروش يك نگاره دارد.
به گزارش ميراث خبر در ابتدا تصور مي‌شد اين استخوان‌ها تقلبي باشند، اما ايروينگ فينكل، از متخصصان خطوط خاور نزديك باستان در موزه بريتانيا، اعتقاد دارد كه آنها اصل هستند. اگر اين استخوان‌هاي به دست آمده اصل باشند، سابقه ارتباط ايران با چين چند قرن عقب‌تر مي‌رود.كاميار عبدي، باستان‌شناس ايراني درباره اهميت اين كشف مي‌گويد: «البته هنوز بايد منتظر نظر ديگر زبان‌شناسان و بررسي‌هاي آزمايشگاهي در مورد اصالت اين اثر باشيم، اما اگر اصل باشد اين كشف مهم تحولي عظيم را در ديدگاه‌هاي ما در زمينه ارتباط بين خاور نزديك، بويژه سلسله هخامنشي و چين در هزاره اول قبل از ميلاد، بويژه در زمان سلسله ژوي شرقي، به دنبال خواهد داشت».تا پيش از اين مدرك مستقيمي مبني بر ارتباط هخامنشيان با چين در دست نبود. با اين كشف تاريخ ارتباط بين ايران و چين از دوره سلسله اشكاني در ايران و سلسله هان در چين پيشتر و به زمان سلسله هخامنشي در ايران و سلسله ژوي شرقي در چين باز مي‌گردد.
داستان كشف
اين دو قطعه استخوان حكاكي شده در سال‌هاي 1935 و 1940 توسط «خو شن وي» طبيب سنتي چين خريداري شدند. خو فكر مي‌كرد اين دو قطعه حاوي اسنادي به خط كهن چيني است. در سال 1966 طي انقلاب فرهنگي چين او اين دو استخوان را براي جلوگيري از نابوديشان در خاك دفن كرد.در سال 1985 خو اين دو استخوان را به شهر ممنوعه برد و به موزه كتيبه‌هاي چين اهدا كرد، اما بتاز‌گي «وو يوهنگ» متخصص زبان‌هاي خاورنزديك باستان در موزه شهر ممنوعه تشخيص داد كه نوشته روي فسيل باستاني بخشي از اعلاميه حقوق بشر كوروش و متعلق به ايران است.
تا پيش از تاييد اصالت اين دو قطعه تصور مي‌شد، لوح كوروش نمونه‌اي منحصر به فرد و تك بوده است. اما طي سال جاري ميلادي پيدا شدن دو قطعه گل نبشته در مجموعه موزه بريتانيا كه بخشي از اعلاميه كوروش بزرگ بود اين باور را مخدوش كرد و اين احتمال را پيش كشيد كه شايد چندين نسخه از اعلاميه كوروش وجود داشته است.
در ژوئن امسال با همكاري موزه چين خطوط روي اين دو قطعه كپي شده و براي مطالعه به موزه بريتانيا انتقال داده شد. به گفته فينكل نوشته روي اين دو قطعه با متن اصلي روي استوانه كوروش كمي تفاوت دارد، اما از لحاظ دستور زبان و آوانگاري درست است. سركش‌هاي سه گوش علائم روي استخوان‌ها با استوانه كوروش متفاوت و بخش بالايي آن شبيه به حرف v است. اين نحوه نگارش در بابل رايج نبوده و احتمال توليد اين استخوان‌ها در ايران را افزايش مي‌دهد.
فينكل همچنين معتقد است متني كه كپي كننده روي استخوان‌ها به كار برده همان متن لوح كوروش نيست، اما نسخه‌اي متفاوت و ايراني از لوح بابلي است كه مي‌توانسته نسخه‌اي از كتيبه‌اي سنگي، نوشته شده با جوهر روي چرم يا گل نوشته باشد كه در مكاني نامعلوم و به منظوري نامشخص در 2500 سال پيش از روي نسخه اصلي استوانه كوروش كپي شده است.
عبدي در اين باره مي‌گويد: «در اين‌كه منشور كوروش متني بسيار مهم بوده ترديدي نيست، اما مهم‌تر از آن اهميت آن براي اتباع شاهنشاهي هخامنشي است. پس از اين‌كه اصالت اين يافته‌ها تاييد شد از نخستين پرسش‌هايي كه بايد بدان پرداخت اين است كه متن منشور كوروش چگونه به چين راه يافته و چرا اين متن براي چيني‌ها آنقدر اهميت داشته كه آن را كپي كنند؟»
British Museum curator has identified cuneiform text inscribed on horse bones
Two fossilised horse bones with cuneiform inscriptions have been found in China, carved with extracts from the Cyrus Cylinder. They were initially dismissed as fakes because of the improbability of ancient Persian texts turning up in Beijing. But following new research, British Museum (BM) specialist Irving Finkel is now convinced of their authenticity.
This discovery looks set to transform our knowledge about what is arguably the most important surviving cuneiform text, written in the world's earliest script. Dating from 539BC, the Cyrus Cylinder was ceremonially buried in the walls of Babylon. Its text celebrates the achievements of Cyrus the Great, ruler of the Persian empire. The clay cylinder was excavated by BM archaeologists in 1879 and sent to London, where it is one of the museum's most important antiquities.
The texts found in China inexplicably have fewer than one in every 20 of the Cyrus text's cuneiform signs transcribed, although they are in the correct order. The two inscribed bones were donated to the Palace Museum in Beijing in 1985 by Xue Shenwei, an elderly Chinese traditional doctor who died later that year. He said that he had learned about the pair of inscriptions in 1928. He bought the first bone in 1935 and the second in 1940, and named the sellers. Xue acquired them because he thought they were written in an unknown ancient script, presumably from China. In 1966, during the Cultural Revolution, he buried the bones for protection, digging them up later. Chinese scholars who have pursued the story believe that Xue's account is credible.
In 1983 Xue offered the bones to the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City, which collects inscriptions. It was then that specialists told him they were written in cuneiform. It was not until two years later, when Xue donated the objects, that specialist Wu Yuhong realised that the text of the first bone came from the Cyrus proclamation (the text of the second was not identified).
The discovery
Until this year it was generally assumed that the Cyrus Cylinder was a unique object, created for ceremonial burial, and that the text had not been disseminated. Then in January two fragments of an inscribed clay tablet in the BM's collection were found to contain part of the proclamation, suggesting that it might have been widely copied. Finkel returned to the pair of Chinese bones, to reconsider whether they might be authentic. He realised that the text on the second bone was also from the Cyrus proclamation (which had been missed in 1985), and requested more information from Beijing.
Chinese Assyriologist Yushu Gong went to the Palace Museum store to examine the bones, and also arranged a new rubbing of the inscription (done with black wax on paper), which provides a much better image of the text than existing photographs. Yushu took these to London, for a workshop that was held at the BM on 23-24 June.
Are the bones fakes?
The obvious question is whether the inscriptions are fakes- although they would be bizarre objects to fake. Why would a faker use fossilised horse bone, a material never used before for this purpose? If the bones had indeed been acquired by Xue by 1940, it would not have been easy for a Chinese forger to have gained access to the Cyrus text, which only became widely known later in the 20th century. Why would a faker have carved only one in 20 of the characters, which meant that it took years before the Cyrus text was identified? And why would a faker have sold the bones in China, where there has been virtually no market for non-Chinese antiquities?
The clinching factor for Finkel is that the partial text on the bones differs slightly from that on the Cyrus Cylinder, although it is correct in linguistic terms. Cuneiform changed over the centuries, and the signs on the bones are in a less evolved form than that of the cylinder. The individual wedge-like strokes of the signs are also different and have a slightly v-shaped top, a form that was not used in Babylon, but was used by scribes in Persia.
"The text used by the copier on the bones was not the Cyrus Cylinder, but another version, probably originally written in Persia, rather than Babylon," Finkel believes. It could have been a version carved on stone, written with ink on leather, or inscribed on a clay tablet. Most likely the original object was sent during the reign of Cyrus to the far east of his empire, in the west of present-day China.
Scholars at the workshop had little time to digest the new evidence, and inevitably there was some scepticism. But Finkel concludes that the evidence is "completely compelling". He is convinced that the bones have been copied from an authentic version of the Cyrus proclamation, although it is unclear at what point in the past 2,500 years the copying was done.
