Political career
Rawlinson was appointed political agent at Kandahar in 1840, serving for three years. In 1844, for his service to the British Empire in the course of the Afghan War, he was made Companion of the Order of the Bath.
A chance encounter with the governor-general resulted in his appointment as political agent in Ottoman Arabia. Settling in Baghdad, he devoted himself to cuneiform studies, and in 1847 he was able to send to Europe a full and accurate transcript of the Behistun inscription, which he was also successful in deciphering and interpreting. Having collected a large amount of antiquarian and geographical information in the pursuit of various explorations, including visits with Sir Austen Henry Layard to the ruins of Nineveh, he returned to England on leave of absence in 1849.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in February 1850, praised as "The Discoverer of the key to the Ancient Persian, Babylonian, and Assyrian Inscriptions in the Cuneiform character. The Author of various papers on the philology, antiquities, and Geography of Mesopotamia and Central Asia. Eminent as a Scholar".
Remaining at home for two years, in 1851 he published his memoir on the Behistun inscription and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. The British Museum took custody of his valuable collection of Babylonian, Sabaean and Sassanian antiquities, and made him a considerable grant to continue Layard's Assyrian and Babylonian excavations. In 1851, he returned to Baghdad, where his archaeological finds contributed greatly to the final decipherment and interpretation of the cuneiform character. Rawlinson's greatest contribution was the discovery that individual cuneiform signs had multiple readings depending on their context. Rawlinson worked with the younger George Smith at the British Museum.
An equestrian accident in 1855 hastened his determination to return to England, and in that year, he resigned his post in the East India Company. Prior to his return, Rawlinson was involved in the ill-fated French mission to ship over 200 cases of antiquities to Europe, which were mostly lost at Al-Qurnah.
On his return to England, he received the distinction of Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, and he was appointed a crown director of the East India Company.
The remaining forty years of his life were full of activity (political, diplomatic and scientific) and were spent mainly in London. From February to September 1858, he sat as member of parliament for Reigate, and he was appointed a member of the first India Council. He left again in 1859, when he was sent to Persia as envoy plenipotentiary, but returned after a year owing to his dissatisfaction with the position. He was MP for Frome from 1865 to 1868, and again served on the Council of India from 1868 until his death.
