page_title: Tomb of Darius the Great
section_title: DNe inscription
hierarchical_section_title: Tomb of Darius the Great / The inscriptions / DNe inscription
caption_attribution_description: English: Armies of Darius I
context_page_description: The tomb of Darius the Great is one of the four tombs of Achaemenid kings at the historical site of Naqsh-e Rustam located about 12 km northwest of Persepolis, Iran. They are all at a considerable height above the ground.
context_section_description: The nationalities mentioned in the DNa inscription are also depicted on the upper registers of all the tombs at Naqsh-e Rustam, starting with the tomb of Darius I, as a group of 30 soldiers of the Empire in their native clothing and bearing weapons, supporting the platform on which the Emperor stands for his devotions to Ahuramazda. One of the best preserved friezes is that of Xerxes I.
  All of the 30 soldiers on the tomb of Darius further have trilingual labels over them for their ethnic identification, known collectively as the DNe inscription (Darius Naqsh-e Rustam inscription "e") in scholarly works. One of the last rulers of the Achaemenid dynasty, Artaxerxes II (r. 404–358 BC), also uses the same labels over the soldiers depicted on his own tomb in Persepolis. These are known collectively as the "A2Pa Inscription".
  The list simply goes on with the identification and naming of the ethnicity of each 30 soldier:
  𐎡𐎹𐎶𐏐𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿    (iyam\Pārsa)   This is a Persian
  𐎡𐎹𐎶𐏐𐎶𐎠𐎭      (iyam\Mâda)    This is a Mede
  𐎡𐎹𐎶𐏐𐎢𐎺𐎹     (iyam\Uvja)    This is an Elamite
  𐎡𐎹𐎶𐏐𐎠𐎰𐎢𐎾𐎡𐎹 (iyam\Āthūriyā)    This is an Assyrian
  — DNe inscription of Darius I (excerpt).
  The nationalities of the soldiers depicted on the reliefs and mentioned in the individual labels of the DNe inscription are, from left to right: Makan, Persian, Median, Elamite, Parthian, ArianBactrian, Sogdian, Choresmian, Zarangian, Arachosian, Sattagydian, Gandharan, Hindush (Indian), Saka (haumavarga), Saka (tigraxauda), Babylonian, Assyrian, Arab, Egyptian, Armenian, Cappadocian, Lydian, Ionian, Saka beyond the sea, Skudrian (Thracian), Macedonian, Libyan, Nubian, Carian.
caption: Ethnicities of the Empire, on the tomb of Darius I. The nationalities mentioned in the DNa inscription are also depicted on the upper registers of all the tombs at Naqsh-e Rustam, starting with the tomb of Darius I.[6] The ethnicities on the tomb of Darius further have trilingual labels over them for identification, collectively known as the DNe inscription. One of the best preserved friezes is that of Xerxes I.
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