Editing Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (section)

===Jar of Xerxes I===
{{main|Jar of Xerxes I}}
{{multiple image
| align    = right
| caption_align = center
| total_width=350
| image1   = Xerxes Jar from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.jpg
| caption1 = Jar of [[Xerxes I]] from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.
| image2   = Xerxes Jar from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (detail).jpg
| caption2 = Detail of the inscription in Egyptian: "The great king Xerxes".
}}
A jar in [[calcite]] or [[alabaster]], an ''[[alabastron]]'', with the quadrilingual signature of Achaemenid ruler [[Xerxes I]] (ruled 486–465 BC) was discovered in the ruins of the Mausoleum, at the foot of the western staircase.<ref name="JB">{{cite book |title=Cambridge Ancient History |date=1924 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521228046 |page=283 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nNDpPqeDjo0C&pg=PA283 |language=en}}</ref> The vase contains an inscription in [[Old Persian]], Egyptian, Babylonian, and Elamite:<ref name="JB"/><ref name="Livius">{{cite book |title=A Jar with the Name of King Xerxes – Livius |url=https://www.livius.org/sources/content/achaemenid-royal-inscriptions/a-jar-with-the-name-of-king-xerxes/}}</ref><ref name="CN">{{cite book |last1=Newton |first1=Charles Thomas |title=A History of Discoveries at Halicarnassus, Cnidus and Branchidae |date=1863 |publisher=Day & Son |page=[https://archive.org/details/ahistorydiscove00pullgoog/page/n243 667] |url=https://archive.org/details/ahistorydiscove00pullgoog |language=en}}</ref>

{{Quotation|
[[Wikt:𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠|𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠]] 𐏐 [[Wikt:𐏋|𐏋]] 𐏐 [[Wikt:𐎺𐏀𐎼𐎣|𐎺𐏀𐎼𐎣]]<br>
('' Xšayāršā : XŠ : vazraka'')<br>
"Xerxes : The Great King."
|Old Persian inscription on the Jar of Xerxes, Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.<ref name="Livius"/>}}

Such jars, of Egyptian origin, were very precious to the Achaemenids, and may therefore have been offered by Xerxes to Carian rulers, and then kept as a precious object.<ref name="CN"/> In particular, the precious jar may have been offered by Xerxes to the Carian dynast [[Artemisia I]], who had acted with merit as his only female Admiral during the [[Second Persian invasion of Greece]], and particularly at the [[Battle of Salamis]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mayor |first1=Adrienne |title=The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World |date=2014 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1400865130 |page=315 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rboWBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA315 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Livius"/><ref name="JB"/> The jar testifies to the close contacts between Carian rulers and the Achaemenid Empire.<ref name="JB"/><ref name="Livius"/>