“The Greatest Assistance in my Recent Labours”

Despite the fact that the name of Henry Creswicke Rawlinson (1810–1895) has been justly enshrined in the history of Assyriology for his fundamental contributions to the decipherment and explication of Old Persian, Elamite, Assyrian and Babylonian, he himself acknowledged the assistance that he received from others who provided him with their own copies of inscriptions at the tomb of Darius I at Naqš-e Rostam. Two of the three — Niels Ludvig Westergaard, a Dane, and Vil’yam Franzevitch Dittel, a Russian — were scholars, while the third — Joseph Louis Tasker, a young Englishman — had spent the previous five years travelling through parts of Europe and the Middle East. The contributions of these three individuals, acknowledged by Rawlinson but scarcely remembered today, form the subject of this study.