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Cyrus Cylinder

July 20, 2023

The Cyrus Cylinder is an ancient clay cylinder, now broken into several pieces, on which is written a Achaemenid royal inscription in Akkadian cuneiform script in the name of Persian king Cyrus the Great.[2][3] It dates from the 6th century BC and was discovered in the ruins of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon (now in modern Iraq) in 1879.[2] It is currently in the possession of the British Museum, which sponsored the expedition that discovered the cylinder. It was created and used as a foundation deposit following the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 BC, when the Neo-Babylonian Empire was invaded by Cyrus and incorporated into his Persian Empire.

Cyrus Cylinder
The Cyrus Cylinder, obverse and reverse sides, and transcription
MaterialBaked clay
Size21.9 centimetres (8.6 in) x 10 centimetres (3.9 in) (maximum) x (end A) 7.8 centimetres (3.1 in) x (end B) 7.9 centimetres (3.1 in)[1]
WritingAkkadian cuneiform script
CreatedAbout 539–538 BC
Period/cultureAchaemenid Empire[1]
DiscoveredBabylon, Baghdad Vilayet of Ottoman Iraq, by Hormuzd Rassam in March 1879[1]
Present locationRoom 52,[1] British Museum (London)
IdentificationBM 90920 [1]
Registration1880,0617.1941 [1]

The text on the Cylinder praises Cyrus, sets out his genealogy and portrays him as a king from a line of kings. The Babylonian king Nabonidus, who was defeated and deposed by Cyrus, is denounced as an impious oppressor of the people of Babylonia and his low-born origins are implicitly contrasted to Cyrus' kingly heritage. The victorious Cyrus is portrayed as having been chosen by the chief Babylonian god Marduk to restore peace and order to the Babylonians. The text states that Cyrus was welcomed by the people of Babylon as their new ruler and entered the city in peace. It appeals to Marduk to protect and help Cyrus and his son Cambyses. It extols Cyrus as a benefactor of the citizens of Babylonia who improved their lives, repatriated displaced people and restored temples and cult sanctuaries across Mesopotamia and elsewhere in the region. It concludes with a description of how Cyrus repaired the city wall of Babylon and found a similar inscription placed there by an earlier king.[3]

The Cylinder's text has traditionally been seen by biblical scholars as corroborative evidence of Cyrus' policy of the repatriation of the Jewish people following their Babylonian captivity[4] (an act that the Book of Ezra attributes to Cyrus[5]), as the text refers to the restoration of cult sanctuaries and repatriation of deported peoples.[6] This interpretation has been disputed, as the text identifies only Mesopotamian sanctuaries, and makes no mention of Jews, Jerusalem, or Judea.[7] Nonetheless, it has been seen as a sign of Cyrus's relatively enlightened approach towards cultural and religious diversity. The former Director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, said that the cylinder was "the first attempt we know about running a society, a state with different nationalities and faiths – a new kind of statecraft".[8]

In modern times, the Cylinder was adopted as a national symbol of Iran by the ruling Pahlavi dynasty, which put it on display in Tehran in 1971 to commemorate the 2,500-year celebration of the Persian Empire.[9] Princess Ashraf Pahlavi presented United Nations Secretary General U Thant with a replica of the Cylinder. The princess asserted that "the heritage of Cyrus was the heritage of human understanding, tolerance, courage, compassion and, above all, human liberty".[10] Her brother, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, promoted the Cylinder as a "charter of human rights", though this interpretation has been described by various historians as "rather anachronistic" and tendentious.[11][12][13][14]

Discovery

 
Hormuzd Rassam in Mosul circa 1854. The Cyrus Cylinder was discovered during Rassam's excavations in Babylon in February–March 1879.

The Assyro-British archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam discovered the Cyrus Cylinder in March 1879 during a lengthy programme of excavations in Mesopotamia carried out for the British Museum.[15] It had been placed as a foundation deposit in the foundations of the Ésagila, the city's main temple.[3] Rassam's expedition followed on from an earlier dig carried out in 1850 by the British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard, who excavated three mounds in the same area but found little of importance.[16] In 1877, Layard became Britain's ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which ruled Mesopotamia at the time. He helped Rassam, who had been his assistant in the 1850 dig, to obtain a firman (decree) from the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II to continue the earlier excavations. The firman was only valid for a year but a second firman, with much more liberal terms, was issued in 1878. It was granted for two years (through to 15 October 1880) with the promise of an extension to 1882 if required.[17] The Sultan's decree authorised Rassam to "pack and dispatch to England any antiquities [he] found ... provided, however, there were no duplicates". A representative of the Sultan was instructed to be present at the dig to examine the objects as they were uncovered.[18]

With permission secured, Rassam initiated a large-scale excavation at Babylon and other sites on behalf of the Trustees of the British Museum.[16] He undertook the excavations in four distinct phases. In between each phase, he returned to England to bring back his finds and raise more funds for further work. The Cyrus Cylinder was found on the second of his four expeditions to Mesopotamia, which began with his departure from London on 8 October 1878. He arrived in his home town of Mosul on 16 November and travelled down the Tigris to Baghdad, which he reached on 30 January 1879. During February and March, he supervised excavations on a number of Babylonian sites, including Babylon itself.[17]

 
Map of the site of Babylon in 1829. Hormuzd Rassam's diggers found the Cyrus Cylinder in the mound of Tell Amran-ibn-Ali (marked with an "E" at the centre of the map) under which lay the ruined Esagila temple.

He soon uncovered a number of important buildings including the Ésagila temple, a major shrine to the chief Babylonian god Marduk, although its identity was not fully confirmed until the German archaeologist Robert Koldewey's excavation of 1900.[19] The excavators found a large number of business documents written on clay tablets buried in the temple's foundations where they discovered the Cyrus Cylinder.[16] Rassam gave conflicting accounts of where his discoveries were made. He wrote in his memoirs, Asshur and the land of Nimrod, that the Cylinder had been found in a mound at the southern end of Babylon near the village of Jumjuma or Jimjima.[20][21] However, in a letter sent on 20 November 1879 to Samuel Birch, the Keeper of Oriental Antiquities at the British Museum, he wrote, "The Cylinder of Cyrus was found at Omran [Tell Amran-ibn-Ali] with about six hundred pieces of inscribed terracottas before I left Baghdad."[22] He left Baghdad on 2 April, returning to Mosul and departing from there on 2 May for a journey to London which lasted until 19 June.[17]

The discovery was announced to the public by Sir Henry Rawlinson, the President of the Royal Asiatic Society, at a meeting of the Society on 17 November 1879.[23] He described it as "one of the most interesting historical records in the cuneiform character that has yet been brought to light", though he erroneously described it as coming from the ancient city of Borsippa rather than Babylon.[24] Rawlinson's "Notes on a newly-discovered Clay Cylinder of Cyrus the Great" were published in the society's journal the following year, including the first partial translation of the text.[25]

Description

The Cyrus Cylinder is a barrel-shaped cylinder of baked clay measuring 22.5 centimetres (8.9 in) by 10 centimetres (3.9 in) at its maximum diameter.[1] It was created in several stages around a cone-shaped core of clay within which there are large grey stone inclusions. It was built up with extra layers of clay to give it a cylindrical shape before a fine surface slip of clay was added to the outer layer, on which the text is inscribed. It was excavated in several fragments, having apparently broken apart in antiquity.[1] Today it exists in two main fragments, known as "A" and "B", which were reunited in 1972.[1]

The main body of the Cylinder, discovered by Rassam in 1879, is fragment "A". It underwent restoration in 1961, when it was re-fired and plaster filling was added.[1] The smaller fragment, "B", is a section measuring 8.6 centimetres (3.4 in) by 5.6 centimetres (2.2 in). The latter fragment was acquired by J.B. Nies[22] of Yale University from an antiquities dealer.[26] Nies published the text in 1920.[27] The fragment was apparently broken off the main body of the Cylinder during the original excavations in 1879 and was either removed from the excavations or was retrieved from one of Rassam's waste dumps. It was not confirmed as part of the Cylinder until Paul-Richard Berger of the University of Münster definitively identified it in 1970.[28] Yale University lent the fragment to the British Museum temporarily (but, in practice, indefinitely) in exchange for "a suitable cuneiform tablet" from the British Museum collection.[1]

Although the Cylinder clearly post-dates Cyrus the Great's conquest of Babylon in 539 BC, the date of its creation is unclear. It is commonly said to date to the early part of Cyrus's reign over Babylon, some time after 539 BC. The British Museum puts the Cylinder's date of origin at between 539 and 530 BC.[4]

Text

 
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Cyrus cylinder

The surviving inscription on the Cyrus Cylinder consists of 45 lines of text written in Akkadian cuneiform script. The first 35 lines are on fragment "A" and the remainder are on fragment "B".[28] A number of lines at the start and end of the text are too badly damaged for more than a few words to be legible.

The text is written in an extremely formulaic style that can be divided into six distinct parts:

 
Extract from the Cyrus Cylinder (lines 15–21), giving the genealogy of Cyrus and an account of his capture of Babylon in 539 BC (E. A. Wallis Budge, 1884).
  • Lines 1–19: an introduction reviling Nabonidus, the previous king of Babylon, and associating Cyrus with the god Marduk;
  • Lines 20–22: detailing Cyrus's royal titles and genealogy, and his peaceful entry to Babylon;
  • Lines 22–34: a commendation of Cyrus's policy of restoring Babylon;
  • Lines 34–35: a prayer to Marduk on behalf of Cyrus and his son Cambyses;
  • Lines 36–37: a declaration that Cyrus has enabled the people to live in peace and has increased the offerings made to the gods;
  • Lines 38–45: details of the building activities ordered by Cyrus in Babylon.[29]
 
Sample detail image showing cuneiform script.

The beginning of the text is partly broken; the surviving content reprimands the character of the deposed Babylonian king Nabonidus. It lists his alleged crimes, charging him with the desecration of the temples of the gods and the imposition of forced labor upon the populace. According to the proclamation, as a result of these offenses, the god Marduk abandoned Babylon and sought a more righteous king. Marduk called forth Cyrus to enter Babylon and become its new ruler.[30]

In [Nabonidus's] mind, reverential fear of Marduk, king of the gods, came to an end. He did yet more evil to his city every day; … his [people ................…], he brought ruin on them all by a yoke without relief … [Marduk] inspected and checked all the countries, seeking for the upright king of his choice. He took the hand of Cyrus, king of the city of Anshan, and called him by his name, proclaiming him aloud for the kingship over all of everything.[30]

Midway through the text, the writer switches to a first-person narrative in the voice of Cyrus, addressing the reader directly. A list of his titles is given (in a Mesopotamian rather than Persian style): "I am Cyrus, king of the world, great king, powerful king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters [of the earth], son of Cambyses, great king, king of Anshan, descendant of Teispes, great king, king of Anshan, the perpetual seed of kingship, whose reign Bel [Marduk] and Nebo love, and with whose kingship, to their joy, they concern themselves."[30] He describes the pious deeds he performed after his conquest: he restored peace to Babylon and the other cities sacred to Marduk, freeing their inhabitants from their "yoke," and he "brought relief to their dilapidated housing (thus) putting an end to their (main) complaints".[31] He repaired the ruined temples in the cities he conquered, restored their cults, and returned their sacred images as well as their former inhabitants which Nabonidus had taken to Babylon.[31] Near the end of the inscription Cyrus highlights his restoration of Babylon's city wall, saying: "I saw within it an inscription of Ashurbanipal, a king who preceded me."[30] The remainder is missing but presumably describes Cyrus's rededication of the gateway mentioned.[32]

A partial transcription by F. H. Weissbach in 1911 was supplanted by a much more complete transcription after the identification of the "B" fragment;[33] this is now available in German and in English.[34][31][35] Several editions of the full text of the Cyrus Cylinder are available online, incorporating both "A" and "B" fragments.

A false translation of the text – affirming, among other things, the abolition of slavery and the right to self-determination, a minimum wage and asylum – has been promoted on the Internet and elsewhere.[36] As well as making claims that are not found on the real cylinder, it refers to the Zoroastrian divinity Ahura Mazda rather than the Mesopotamian god Marduk.[37] The false translation has been widely circulated; alluding to its claim that Cyrus supposedly has stated that "Every country shall decide for itself whether or not it wants my leadership."[36] Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi in her acceptance speech described Cyrus as "the very emperor who proclaimed at the pinnacle of power 2,500 years ago that … he would not reign over the people if they did not wish it".[36][38][39]

Associated fragments

The British Museum announced in January 2010 that two inscribed clay fragments, which had been in the museum's collection since 1881, had been identified as part of a cuneiform tablet that was inscribed with the same text as the Cyrus Cylinder. The fragments had come from the small site of Dailem near Babylon and the identification was made by Professor Wilfred Lambert, formerly of the University of Birmingham, and Irving Finkel, curator in charge of the museum's Department of the Middle East.[40][41]

Relation to a Chinese bone inscription

In 1983 two fossilized horse bones inscribed with cuneiform signs surfaced in China which Professor Oliver Gurney at Oxford later identified as coming from the Cyrus Cylinder. The discovery of these objects aroused much discussion about possible connections between ancient Mesopotamia and China, although their authenticity was doubted by many scholars from the beginning and they are now generally regarded as forgeries.

The history of the putative artifact goes back almost a century.[42] The earliest record goes back to a Chinese doctor named Xue Shenwei, who sometime prior to 1928 was shown a photo of a rubbing of one of the bones by an antiquities dealer named Zhang Yi'an.[43] Although not able to view the bones at that time, Xue Shenwei later acquired one of them from another antiquities dealer named Wang Dongting in 1935 and then the second via a personal connection named Ke Yanling around 1940. While Xue did not recognize the script on the bones he guessed at its antiquity and buried the bones for safekeeping during the Cultural Revolution. Then, in 1983 Xue presented the bones to the Palace Museum in Beijing where Liu Jiuan and Wang Nanfang of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage undertook their study.[43] These officials identified the script as cuneiform and asked the Assyriologists Chi Yang and Wu Yuhong to work on the inscriptions. Identification of the source text proceeded slowly until 1985, when Wu Yuhong along with Oxford Assyriologist Stephanie Dalley and Oliver Gurney recognized the text in one bone as coming from the Cyrus Cylinder. One year later Wu Yuhong presented his findings at the 33rd Rencontre Assyriologique and published them in a journal article.[44]

After that the second bone inscription remained undeciphered until 2010, when Irving Finkel worked on it. In that same year the British Museum held a conference dedicated to the artifacts. Based on the serious textual errors in the inscription, including the omission of a large number of signs from the Cyrus Cylinder, Wu Yuhong argued the inscriptions were most likely copied from the cylinder while housed in the British Museum or from an early modern publication based upon it. However he acknowledged the remote possibility it was copied in late antiquity.[43] Irving Finkel disputed this conclusion based on the relative obscurity of the Cyrus Cylinder until recent decades and the mismatch in paleography between the bone inscriptions and the hand copies found in early editions from the 1880s.

Finally, after the workshop concluded, an 1884 edition of the Cyrus Cylinder by E. A. Wallis Budge came to Irving Finkel's attention. This publication used an idiosyncratic typeface and featured a handcopy for only a section of the whole cylinder. However the typeface in that edition matched the paleography on the bone inscriptions and the extract of the cylinder published in the book matched that of the bone as well. This convinced Finkel that the bone inscriptions were early modern forgeries and that has remained the majority opinion since then.

Interpretations

Mesopotamian and Persian tradition and propaganda

According to the British Museum, the Cyrus Cylinder reflects a long tradition in Mesopotamia where, from as early as the third millennium BC, kings began their reigns with declarations of reforms.[4] Cyrus's declaration stresses his legitimacy as the king, and is a conspicuous statement of his respect for the religious and political traditions of Babylon. The British Museum and scholars of the period describe it as an instrument of ancient Mesopotamian propaganda.[45][46]

The text is a royal building inscription, a genre which had no equivalent in Old Persian literature. It illustrates how Cyrus co-opted local traditions and symbols to legitimize his conquest and control of Babylon.[32][47] Many elements of the text were drawn from long-standing Mesopotamian themes of legitimizing rule in Babylonia: the preceding king is reprimanded and he is proclaimed to have been abandoned by the gods for his wickedness; the new king has gained power through the divine will of the gods; the new king rights the wrongs of his predecessor, addressing the welfare of the people; the sanctuaries of the gods are rebuilt or restored, offerings to the gods are made or increased and the blessings of the gods are sought; and repairs are made to the whole city, in the manner of earlier rightful kings.[3]

Both continuity and discontinuity are emphasized in the text of the Cylinder. It asserts the virtue of Cyrus as a gods-fearing king of a traditional Mesopotamian type. On the other hand, it constantly discredits Nabonidus, reviling the deposed king's deeds and even his ancestry and portraying him as an impious destroyer of his own people. As Fowler and Hekster note, this "creates a problem for a monarch who chooses to buttress his claim to legitimacy by appropriating the 'symbolic capital' of his predecessors".[48] The Cylinder's reprimand of Nabonidus also discredits Babylonian royal authority by association. It is perhaps for this reason that the Achaemenid rulers made greater use of Assyrian rather than Babylonian royal iconography and tradition in their declarations; the Cylinder refers to the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal as "my predecessor", rather than any native Babylonian ruler.[48]

The Cylinder itself is part of a continuous Mesopotamian tradition of depositing a wide variety of symbolic items, including animal sacrifices, stone tablets, terracotta cones, cylinders and figures. Newly crowned kings of Babylon would make public declarations of their own righteousness when beginning their reigns, often in the form of declarations that were deposited in the foundations of public buildings.[49] Some contained messages, while others did not, and they had a number of purposes: elaboration of a building's value, commemoration of the ruler or builder and the magical sanctification of the building, through the invocation of divine protection.

The cylinder was not intended to be seen again after its burial, but the text inscribed on it would have been used for public purposes. Archive copies were kept of important inscriptions and the Cylinder's text may likewise have been copied.[50] In January 2010, the British Museum announced that two cuneiform tablets in its collection had been found to be inscribed with the same text as that on the Cyrus Cylinder,[51] which, according to the museum, "show that the text of the Cylinder was probably a proclamation that was widely distributed across the Persian Empire".[52] A statue of the cylinder is now on exhibit in Los Angeles on the Avenue of the Stars as a gift from the Persian people to the city of Los Angeles

Similarities with other royal inscriptions

 
The Nabonidus Cylinder

The Cyrus Cylinder bears striking similarities to older Mesopotamian royal inscriptions. Two notable examples are the Cylinder of Marduk-apla-iddina II, who seized the Babylonian throne in 722/1 BC, and the annals of Sargon II of Assyria, who conquered Babylon twelve years later. As a conqueror, Marduk-apla-iddina faced many of the same problems of legitimacy that Cyrus did when he conquered Babylon. He declares himself to have been chosen personally by Marduk, who ensured his victory. When he took power, he performed the sacred rites and restored the sacred shrines. He states that he found a royal inscription placed in the temple foundations by an earlier Babylonian king, which he left undisturbed and honored. All of these claims also appear in Cyrus's Cylinder. Twelve years later, the Assyrian king Sargon II defeated and exiled Marduk-apla-iddina, taking up the kingship of Babylonia. Sargon's annals describe how he took on the duties of a Babylonian sovereign, honouring the gods, maintaining their temples and respecting and upholding the privileges of the urban elite. Again, Cyrus's Cylinder makes exactly the same points. Nabonidus, Cyrus's deposed predecessor as king of Babylon, commissioned foundation texts on clay cylinders – such as the Cylinder of Nabonidus, also in the British Museum – that follows the same basic formula.[53]

The text of the Cylinder thus indicates a strong continuity with centuries of Babylonian tradition, as part of an established rhetoric advanced by conquerors.[53] As Kuhrt puts it:

[The Cylinder] reflects the pressure that Babylonian citizens were able to bring to bear on the new royal claimant … In this context, the reign of the defeated predecessor was automatically described as bad and against the divine will – how else could he have been defeated? By implication, of course, all his acts became, inevitably and retrospectively, tainted.[53]

The familiarity with long-established Babylonian tropes suggests that the Cylinder was authored by the Babylonian priests of Marduk, working at the behest of Cyrus.[54] It can be compared with another work of around the same time, the Verse Account of Nabonidus, in which the former Babylonian ruler is excoriated as the enemy of the priests of Marduk and Cyrus is presented as the liberator of Babylon.[55] Both works make a point of stressing Cyrus's qualifications as a king from a line of kings, in contrast to the non-royal ancestry of Nabonidus, who is described by the Cylinder as merely maţû, "insignificant".[56]

The Verse Account is so similar to the Cyrus Cylinder inscription that the two texts have been dubbed an example of "literary dependence" – not the direct dependence of one upon the other, but mutual dependence upon a common source. This is characterised by the historian Morton Smith as "the propaganda put out in Babylonia by Cyrus's agents, shortly before Cyrus's conquest, to prepare the way of their lord".[57] This viewpoint has been disputed; as Simon J. Sherwin of the University of Cambridge puts it, the Cyrus Cylinder and the Verse Account are "after the event" compositions which reuse existing Mesopotamian literary themes and do not need to be explained as the product of pre-conquest Persian propaganda.[58]

The German historian Hanspeter Schaudig has identified a line on the Cylinder ("He [i.e. Marduk] saved his city Babylon from its oppression") with a line from tablet VI of the Babylonian "Epic of Creation", Enûma Eliš, in which Marduk builds Babylon.[59] Johannes Haubold suggests that reference represents Cyrus's takeover as a moment of ultimate restoration not just of political and religious institutions, but of the cosmic order underpinning the universe.[60]

Analysis of the Cyrus Cylinder's claims

 
Stele depicting Nabonidus praying to the moon, sun and the planet Venus. The Babylonian king's religious practices were harshly condemned by the Cyrus Cylinder's inscription.
Vilification of Nabonidus

The Cyrus Cylinder's vilification of Nabonidus is consistent with other Persian propaganda regarding the deposed king's rule. In contrast to the Cylinder's depiction of Nabonidus as an illegitimate ruler who ruined his country, the reign of Nabonidus was largely peaceful, he was recognised as a legitimate king and he undertook a variety of building projects and military campaigns commensurate with his claim to be "the king of Babylon, the universe, and the four corners [of the Earth]".[61]

Nabonidus as actually seen in Babylon

The Assyriologist Paul-Alain Beaulieu has interpreted Nabonidus's exaltation of the moon god Sin as "an outright usurpation of Marduk's prerogatives by the moon god".[62] Although the Babylonian king continued to make rich offerings to Marduk, his greater devotion to Sin was unacceptable to the Babylonian priestly elite.[63] Nabonidus came from the unfashionable north of Babylonia, introduced foreign gods and went into a lengthy self-imposed exile which was said to have prevented the celebration of the vital New Year festival.[64]

Nabonidus as seen in the Harran Stela, contrasted with the Cyrus Cylinder

The Harran Stela[65] is generally acknowledged as a genuine document commissioned by Nabonidus.[66] In it, Nabonidus seeks to glorify his own accomplishments, notably his restoration of the Elhulhul Temple, which was devoted to the moon-god Sin. In this regard, the Harran Stela verifies the picture that is dwelt on in the Cyrus Cylinder, that Nabonidus had largely abandoned the homage due to Marduk, chief god of Babylon, in favor of the worship of Sin. Since his mother Addagoppe was apparently a priestess of Sin, or at least a lifelong devotee, this helps explain the unwise political decision regarding Marduk on the part of Nabonidus, a decision that Cyrus takes great advantage of in the Cyrus Cylinder. His mother was also a resident of Harran, which affords another reason why Nabonidus moved there in the third year of his reign (553 BC), at which time he “entrusted the “Camp” to his oldest (son) [Belshazzar], the first-born . . . He let (everything) go, entrusted the kingship to him.”[67]

In at least one respect, however, the Harran Stela is incongruous with the portrayal of events in the Cyrus Cylinder. In the Stela, Nabonidus lists the enemies of Babylon as “the king of Egypt, the Medes and the land of the Arabs, all the hostile kings.” The significance of this lies in the date the Stela was composed: According to Paul-Alain Beaulieu, its composition dates to the latter part of the reign of Nabonidus, probably the fourteenth or fifteenth year, i.e. 542–540 BC.[68] The problem with this is that, according to the current consensus view, based largely on the Cyrus Cylinder and later Persian documents that followed in its genre, the Persians should have been named here as a major enemy of Babylon at a time three years or less before the fall of the city to the forces under Cyrus. Nabonidus, however, names the Medes, not the Persians, as a main enemy; as king of the realm he would certainly know who his enemies were. By naming the Medes instead of the Persians, the Harran Stela is more in conformity with the narration of events in Xenophon's Cyropaedia, where Cyrus and the Persians were under the de jure suzerainty of the Medes until shortly after the fall of Babylon, at which time Cyrus, king of Persia, became king of the Medes as well.

A further discussion of the relationship of the Harran Stela (=Babylonian propaganda) to the Cyrus Cylinder (=Persian propaganda) is found on the Harran Stela page, including a discussion of why the Cyrus Cylinder and later Persian texts never name Belshazzar, despite his close association with events associated with the fall of Babylon, as related both in the Bible (Daniel, chapter 5) and in Xenophon's Cyropaedia.[69]

Conquest and local support

Cyrus's conquest of Babylonia was resisted by Nabonidus and his supporters, as the Battle of Opis demonstrated. Iranologist Pierre Briant comments that "it is doubtful that even before the fall of [Babylon] Cyrus was impatiently awaited by a population desperate for a 'liberator'."[70] However, Cyrus's takeover as king does appear to have been welcomed by some of the Babylonian population.[71] The Judaic historian Lisbeth S. Fried says that there is little evidence that the high-ranking priests of Babylonia during the Achaemenid period were Persians and characterises them as Babylonian collaborators.[72]

The text presents Cyrus as entering Babylon peacefully and being welcomed by the population as a liberator. This presents an implicit contrast with previous conquerors, notably the Assyrian rulers Tukulti-Ninurta I, who invaded and plundered Babylon in the 12th century BC, and Sennacherib, who did the same thing 150 years before Cyrus conquered the region.[13] The massacre and enslavement of conquered people was common practice and was explicitly highlighted by conquerors in victory statements. The Cyrus Cylinder presents a very different message; Johannes Haubold notes that it portrays Cyrus's takeover as a harmonious moment of convergence between Babylonian and Persian history, not a natural disaster but the salvation of Babylonia.[59]

However, the Cylinder's account of Cyrus's conquest clearly does not tell the whole story, as it suppresses any mention of the earlier conflict between the Persians and the Babylonians;[59] Max Mallowan describes it as a "skilled work of tendentious history".[64] The text omits the Battle of Opis, in which Cyrus's forces defeated and apparently massacred Nabonidus's army.[3][73][74] Nor does it explain a two-week gap reported by the Nabonidus Chronicle between the Persian entry into Babylon and the surrender of the Esagila temple. Lisbeth S. Fried suggests that there may have been a siege or stand-off between the Persians and the temple's defenders and priests, about whose fate the Cylinder and Chronicle makes no mention. She speculates that they were killed or expelled by the Persians and replaced by more pro-Persian members of the Babylonian priestly elite.[75] As Walton and Hill put it, the claim of a wholly peaceful takeover acclaimed by the people is "standard conqueror's rhetoric and may obscure other facts".[76] Describing the claim of one's own armies being welcomed as liberators as "one of the great imperial fantasies", Bruce Lincoln, Professor of Divinity at the University of Chicago, notes that the Babylonian population repeatedly revolted against Persian rule in 522 BC, 521 BC, 484 BC and 482 BC (though not against Cyrus or his son Cambeses). The rebels sought to restore national independence and the line of native Babylonian kings – perhaps an indication that they were not as favourably disposed towards the Persians as the Cylinder suggests.[77]

Restoration of temples

The inscription goes on to describe Cyrus returning to their original sanctuaries the statues of the gods that Nabonidus had brought to the city before the Persian invasion. This restored the normal cultic order to the satisfaction of the priesthood. It alludes to temples being restored and deported groups being returned to their homelands but does not imply an empire-wide programme of restoration. Instead, it refers to specific areas in the border region between Babylonia and Persia, including sites that had been devastated by earlier Babylonian military campaigns. The Cylinder indicates that Cyrus sought to acquire the loyalty of the ravaged regions by funding reconstruction, the return of temple properties and the repatriation of the displaced populations. However, it is unclear how much actually changed on the ground; there is no archaeological evidence for any rebuilding or repairing of Mesopotamian temples during Cyrus's reign.[47]

Internal policy

The Persians' policy towards their subject people, as described by the Cylinder, was traditionally viewed as an expression of tolerance, moderation and generosity "on a scale previously unknown".[78] The policies of Cyrus toward subjugated nations have been contrasted to those of the Assyrians and Babylonians, who had treated subject peoples harshly; he permitted the resettling of those who had been previously deported and sponsored the reconstruction of religious buildings.[79] Cyrus was often depicted positively in Western tradition by sources such as the Old Testament of the Bible and the Greek writers Herodotus and Xenophon.[80][81] The Cyropaedia of Xenophon was particularly influential during the Renaissance when Cyrus was romanticised as an exemplary model of a virtuous and successful ruler.[82]

Modern historians argue that while Cyrus's behavior was indeed conciliatory, it was driven by the needs of the Persian Empire, and was not an expression of personal tolerance per se.[83] The empire was too large to be centrally directed; Cyrus followed a policy of using existing territorial units to implement a decentralized system of government. The magnanimity shown by Cyrus won him praise and gratitude from those he spared.[84] The policy of toleration described by the Cylinder was thus, as biblical historian Rainer Albertz puts it, "an expression of conservative support for local regions to serve the political interests of the whole [empire]".[85] Another biblical historian, Alberto Soggin, comments that it was more "a matter of practicality and economy … [as] it was simpler, and indeed cost less, to obtain the spontaneous collaboration of their subjects at a local level than to have to impose their sovereignty by force".[86]

Differences between the Cyrus Cylinder and previous Babylonian and Assyrian cylinders

There are scholars who agree that the Cyrus Cylinder demonstrates a break from past traditions, and the ushering in of a new era.[87] A comparison of the Cyrus Cylinder with the inscriptions of previous conquerors of Babylon highlights this sharply. For instance, when Sennacherib, king of Assyria(705-681 BC) captured the city in 690 BC after a 15-month siege, Babylon endured a dreadful destruction and massacre.[88] Sennacharib describes how, having captured the King of Babylon, he had him tied up in the middle of the city like a pig. Then he describes how he destroyed Babylon, and filled the city with corpses, looted its wealth, broke its gods, burned and destroyed its houses down to foundations, demolished its walls and temples and dumped them in the canals. This is in stark contrast to Cyrus the Great and the Cyrus Cylinder. The past Assyrian, and Babylonian tradition of victor's justice was a common treatment for a defeated people at this time. Sennacherib's tone for instance, reflected his relish of and pride in massacre and destruction, which is totally at odds with the message of the Cyrus Cylinder.[88][89]

Another difference between the previously mentioned texts and the Cyrus Cylinder is that no other king ever returned captives to their homes as Cyrus did.[90] The Assyrians sometimes gave limited religious freedom to local cults and the people they conquered, but after a military conquest, the conquered people usually had to submit to the 'exalted might' of the Assyrian god Ashur; their own shrines and gods were demolished and people put under 'the yoke of Ashur.' Even Babylon itself did not show tolerance towards other beliefs and cults, for it had destroyed the temple of Jerusalem as well as the temple in Harran; furthermore, Nabonidus took other gods from their sacred shrines, and carried them to Babylon. This clearly shows that the Cyrus Cylinder was not a typical declaration that was keeping with the old traditions of the past.[90]

Biblical interpretations

Main article: Cyrus the Great in the Bible
Further information: The Return to Zion
 
Places in Mesopotamia mentioned by the Cyrus Cylinder. Most of the localities it mentions in connection with the restoration of temples were in eastern and northern Mesopotamia, in territories that had been ruled by the deposed Babylonian king Nabonidus (excepting Susa).

The Bible records that some Jews (who were exiled by the Babylonians), returned to their homeland from Babylon, where they had been settled by Nebuchadnezzar, to rebuild the temple following an edict from Cyrus. The Book of Ezra (1–4:5) provides a narrative account of the rebuilding project.[91] Scholars have linked one particular passage from the Cylinder to the Old Testament account:[46]

From [?][92] to Aššur and [from] Susa, Agade, Ešnunna, Zabban, Me-Turnu, Der, as far as the region of Gutium, the sacred centers on the other side of the Tigris, whose sanctuaries had been abandoned for a long time, I returned the images of the gods, who had resided there [i.e., in Babylon], to their places and I let them dwell in eternal abodes. I gathered all their inhabitants and returned to them their dwellings.[93]

This passage has often been interpreted as a reference to the benign policy instituted by Cyrus of allowing exiled peoples, such as the Jews, to return to their original homelands.[6] The Cylinder's inscription has been linked with the reproduction in the Book of Ezra of two texts that are claimed to be edicts issued by Cyrus concerning the repatriation of the Jews and the reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.[94] The two edicts (one in Hebrew and one in Aramaic) are substantially different in content and tone, leading some historians to argue that one or both may be a post hoc fabrication.[95] The question of their authenticity remains unresolved, though it is widely believed that they do reflect some sort of Persian royal policy, albeit perhaps not one that was couched in the terms given in the text of the biblical edicts.

The dispute over the authenticity of the biblical edicts has prompted interest in this passage from the Cyrus Cylinder, specifically concerning the question of whether it indicates that Cyrus had a general policy of repatriating subject peoples and restoring their sanctuaries.[96] The text of the Cylinder is very specific, listing places in Mesopotamia and the neighboring regions. It does not describe any general release or return of exiled communities but focuses on the return of Babylonian deities to their own home cities. It emphasises the re-establishment of local religious norms, reversing the alleged neglect of Nabonidus – a theme that Amélie Kuhrt describes as "a literary device used to underline the piety of Cyrus as opposed to the blasphemy of Nabonidus". She suggests that Cyrus had simply adopted a policy used by earlier Assyrian rulers of giving privileges to cities in key strategic or politically sensitive regions and that there was no general policy as such.[97] Lester L. Grabbe, a historian of early Judaism, has written that "the religious policy of the Persians was not that different from the basic practice of the Assyrians and Babylonians before them" in tolerating – but not promoting – local cults, other than their own gods.[98]

Cyrus may have seen Jerusalem, situated in a strategic location between Mesopotamia and Egypt, as worth patronising for political reasons. His Achaemenid successors generally supported indigenous cults in subject territories and thereby curried favour with the cults' devotees.[99] Conversely, Persian kings might destroy the shrines of peoples who had rebelled against them, as happened at Miletos in 494 BC following the Ionian Revolt.[100] The Cylinder's text does not describe any general policy of a return of exiles or mention any sanctuary outside Babylonia[7] therein supporting Peter Ross Bedford's argument that the Cylinder is "not a manifesto for a general policy regarding indigenous cults and their worshippers throughout the empire".[101] Amélie Kuhrt notes that "the purely Babylonian context of the Cylinder provides no proof" that Cyrus gave attention to the Jewish exiles or the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem[46] and biblical historian Bob Becking concludes that "it has nothing to do with Judeans, Jews or Jerusalem". Becking also points to the lack of reference to the Jews in surviving Achaemenid texts as an indication that they were not considered of any particular importance.[6]

The German scholar Josef Wiesehöfer summarizes the widely held traditional view by noting that "Many scholars have read into [... the text of Cylinder] a confirmation of the Old Testament passages about the steps taken by Cyrus towards the erection of the Jerusalem temple and the repatriation of the Judaeans" and that this interpretation undergirded a belief "that the instructions to this effect were actually provided in these very formulations of the Cyrus Cylinder".[29]

Human rights

The Cylinder gained new prominence in the late 1960s when the last Shah of Iran called it "the world's first charter of human rights".[102] The cylinder was a key symbol of the Shah's political ideology and is still regarded by some commentators as a charter of human rights, despite the disagreement of some historians and scholars.[9]

Pahlavi Iranian government's view

 
Cyrus Cylinder at the center of the official emblem of 2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire at Pahlavi Iranian imperial era

The Cyrus Cylinder was dubbed the "first declaration of human rights" by the pre-Revolution Iranian government,[103] a reading prominently advanced by Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, in a 1967 book, The White Revolution of Iran. The Shah identified Cyrus as a key figure in government ideology and associated his government with the Achaemenids.[104] He wrote that "the history of our empire began with the famous declaration of Cyrus, which, for its advocacy of humane principles, justice and liberty, must be considered one of the most remarkable documents in the history of mankind."[105] The Shah described Cyrus as the first ruler in history to give his subjects "freedom of opinion and other basic rights".[105] In 1968, the Shah opened the first United Nations Conference on Human Rights in Tehran by saying that the Cyrus Cylinder was the precursor to the modern Universal Declaration of Human Rights.[106]

In his 1971 Nowruz (New Year) speech, the Shah declared that 1350 AP (1971–1972) would be Cyrus the Great Year, during which a grand commemoration would be held to celebrate 2,500 years of Persian monarchy. It would serve as a showcase for a modern Iran in which the contributions that Iran had made to world civilization would be recognized. The main theme of the commemoration was the centrality of the monarchy within Iran's political system, associating the Shah of Iran with the famous monarchs of Persia's past, and with Cyrus in particular.[9] The Shah looked to the Achaemenid period as "a moment from the national past that could best serve as a model and a slogan for the imperial society he hoped to create".[107]

The Cyrus Cylinder was adopted as the symbol for the commemoration, and Iranian magazines and journals published numerous articles about ancient Persian history.[9] The British Museum loaned the original Cylinder to the Iranian government for the duration of the festivities; it was put on display at the Shahyad Monument (now the Azadi Tower) in Tehran.[108] The 2,500 year celebrations commenced on October 12, 1971, and culminated a week later with a spectacular parade at the tomb of Cyrus in Pasargadae. On October 14, the shah's sister, Princess Ashraf Pahlavi, presented the United Nations Secretary General U Thant with a replica of the Cylinder. The princess asserted that "the heritage of Cyrus was the heritage of human understanding, tolerance, courage, compassion and, above all, human liberty".[10] The Secretary General accepted the gift, linking the Cylinder with the efforts of the United Nations General Assembly to address "the question of Respect for Human Rights in Armed Conflict".[10] Since then the replica Cylinder has been kept at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City on the second floor hallway.[10] The United Nations continues to promote the cylinder as "an ancient declaration of human rights".[36]

Reception in the Islamic Republic

In September 2010, former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad officially opened the Cyrus Cylinder exhibition at the National Museum of Iran. After the Pahlavi era, it was the second time the cylinder was brought to Iran. It was also its longest-running exhibition inside the country. Ahmadinejad considers the Cyrus Cylinder as the incarnation of human values and a cultural heritage for all humanity, and called it the "First Charter of Human Rights". The British Museum had loaned the Cyrus Cylinder to the National Museum of Iran for four months.

The Cylinder reads that everyone is entitled to freedom of thought and choice and all individuals should pay respect to one another. The historical charter also underscores the necessity of fighting oppression, defending the oppressed, respecting human dignity, and recognizing human rights. The Cyrus Cylinder bears testimony to the fact that the Iranian nation has always been the flag-bearer of justice, devotion and human values throughout history.

— Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during Cyrus Cylinder exhibition at National Museum of Iran

Some Iranian politicians such as MP Ali Motahari criticized Ahmadinejad for bringing the Cyrus Cylinder to Iran, although Tehran daily Kayhan, viewed as an ultra-conservative newspaper, had opined that the Islamic Republic should never have returned the Cyrus Cylinder to Britain (note that the cylinder was not discovered in Iran, but in present-day Iraq):

There is an important question: Doesn't the cylinder belong to Iran? And hasn't the British government stolen ancient artifacts from our country? If the answers to these questions are positive, then why should we return this stolen historical and valuable work to the thieves?

— Kayhan newspaper during Cyrus Cylinder exhibition in Iran

At the time, the Curator of the National Museum of Iran, Azadeh Ardakani, reported approximately 48,000 visitors to the Cylinder exhibition, amongst whom over 2000 were foreigners, including foreign ambassadors.

Scholarly views

The interpretation of the Cylinder as a "charter of human rights" has been described by various historians as "rather anachronistic" and tendentious.[11][109][110][111][14] It has been dismissed as a "misunderstanding"[12] and characterized as political propaganda devised by the Pahlavi regime.[97] The German historian Josef Wiesehöfer comments that the portrayal of Cyrus as a champion of human rights is as illusory as the image of the "humane and enlightened Shah of Persia".[104] D. Fairchild Ruggles and Helaine Silverman describe the Shah's aim as being to legitimise the Iranian nation and his own regime, and to counter the growing influence of Islamic fundamentalism by creating an alternative narrative rooted in the ancient Persian past.[112]

Writing in the immediate aftermath of the Shah's anniversary commemorations, the British Museum's C.B.F. Walker comments that the "essential character of the Cyrus Cylinder [is not] a general declaration of human rights or religious toleration but simply a building inscription, in the Babylonian and Assyrian tradition, commemorating Cyrus's restoration of the city of Babylon and the worship of Marduk previously neglected by Nabonidus".[22] Two professors specialising in the history of the ancient Near East, Bill T. Arnold and Piotr Michalowski, comment: "Generically, it belongs with other foundation deposit inscriptions; it is not an edict of any kind, nor does it provide any unusual human rights declaration as is sometimes claimed."[13] Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones of the University of Edinburgh notes that "there is nothing in the text" that suggests the concept of human rights.[110] Neil MacGregor comments:

Comparison by scholars in the British Museum with other similar texts, however, showed that rulers in ancient Iraq had been making comparable declarations upon succeeding to the [Babylonian] throne for two millennia before Cyrus […] it is one of the museum's tasks to resist the narrowing of the object's meaning and its appropriation to one political agenda.[102]

He cautions that while the Cylinder is "clearly linked with the history of Iran," it is "in no real sense an Iranian document: it is part of a much larger history of the ancient Near East, of Mesopotamian kingship, and of the Jewish diaspora".[102] In a similar vein, Qamar Adamjee of the Asian Art Museum describes it as a "very traditional kingship document" and cautions that "it's anachronistic to use 20th century terms to describe events that happened two thousand five hundred years ago."[14]

Non-specialist writers on human rights have supported the interpretation of the Cyrus Cylinder as a human rights charter.[113][114] W.J. Talbott, an American philosopher, believes the concept of human rights is a 20th-century concept but describes Cyrus as "perhaps the earliest known advocate of religious tolerance" and suggests that "ideas that led to the development of human rights are not limited to one cultural tradition."[115] The Iranian lawyer Hirad Abtahi argues that viewing the Cylinder as merely "an instrument of legitimizing royal rule" is unjustified, as Cyrus issued the document and granted those rights when he was at the height of his power, with neither popular opposition nor visible external threat to force his hand.[116]

Exhibition history

 
The Cyrus Cylinder in Room 52 of the British Museum in London

The Cyrus Cylinder has been displayed in the British Museum since its formal acquisition in 1880.[1] It has been loaned four times – twice to Iran, between 7–22 October 1971 in conjunction with the 2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire and again from September–December 2010, once to Spain from March–June 2006,[1] and once to the United States in a traveling exhibition from March–October 2013. Many replicas have been made. Some were distributed by the Shah following the 1971 commemorations, while the British Museum and National Museum of Iran have sold them commercially.[1]

The British Museum's ownership of the Cyrus Cylinder has been the cause of some controversy in Iran, although the artifact was obtained legally and was not excavated on Iranian soil but on former Ottoman territory (modern Iraq). When it was loaned in 1971, the Iranian press campaigned for its transfer to Iranian ownership. The Cylinder was brought back to London without difficulty, but the British Museum's Board of Trustees subsequently decided that it would be "undesirable to make a further loan of the Cylinder to Iran."[1]

In 2005–2006 the British Museum mounted a major exhibition on the Persian Empire, Forgotten Empire: the World of Ancient Persia. It was held in collaboration with the Iranian government, which loaned the British Museum a number of iconic artefacts in exchange for an undertaking that the Cyrus Cylinder would be loaned to the National Museum of Iran in return.[117]

The planned loan of the Cylinder was postponed in October 2009 following the June 2009 Iranian presidential election so that the British Museum could be "assured that the situation in the country was suitable".[118] In response, the Iranian government threatened to end cooperation with the British Museum if the Cylinder was not loaned within the following two months.[118][119] This deadline was postponed despite appeals by the Iranian government[118][120] but the Cylinder did eventually go on display in Tehran in September 2010 for a four-month period.[121] The exhibition was very popular, attracting 48,000 people within the first ten days and about 500,000 people by the time it closed in January 2011.[122][123] However, at its opening, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad mingled Islamic Republican and ancient Persian symbology which commentators inside and outside Iran criticised as an overt appeal to religious nationalism.[124]

On November 28, 2012, the BBC announced the first United States tour of the Cylinder. Under the headline “British Museum lends ancient 'bill of rights' cylinder to US”, Museum director Neil MacGregor declared that “The cylinder, often referred to as the first bill of human rights, ‘must be shared as widely as possible’".[125] The British Museum itself announced the news in its press release, saying "First declaration of human rights’ to tour five cities in the United States".[126] According to the British Museum's website for the Cylinder's US exhibition "CyrusCylinder2013.com", the tour started in March 2013 and included Washington DC’s Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and culminated at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, in October 2013.[127]

The cylinder, along with thirty two other associated objects from the British Museum collection, including a pair of gold armlets from the Oxus Treasure and the Darius Seal, were part of an exhibition titled 'The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia – A New Beginning' at the Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai, India, from December 21, 2013, to February 25, 2014. It was organised by the British Museum and the Prince of Wales Museum in partnership with Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, Sir Ratan Tata Trust and Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust, all set up by luminaries from the Parsi community, who are descendants of Persian Zoroastrians, who hold Cyrus in great regard, as many scholars consider him as a follower of Zoroastrianism.[128]

The Freedom Sculpture

Main article: Freedom Sculpture

The Freedom Sculpture or Freedom: A Shared Dream (Persian: تندیس آزادی) is a 2017 stainless steel public art sculpture by artist and architect Cecil Balmond, located in Century City, California, and modeled on the Cyrus Cylinder.[129][130][131]

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "The Cyrus Cylinder (British Museum database)". Retrieved 19 June 2010.
  2. ^ a b Dandamayev, (2010-01-26)
  3. ^ a b c d e Kuhrt (2007), p. 70, 72
  4. ^ a b c British Museum: The Cyrus Cylinder
  5. ^ Free & Vos (1992), p. 204
  6. ^ a b c Becking, p. 8
  7. ^ a b Janzen, p. 157
  8. ^ Barbara Slavin (6 March 2013). "Cyrus Cylinder a Reminder of Persian Legacy of Tolerance". Al-Monitor. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
  9. ^ a b c d Ansari, pp. 218–19.
  10. ^ a b c d United Nations Press Release 14 October 1971(SG/SM/1553/HQ263 2017-08-07 at the Wayback Machine)
  11. ^ a b Daniel, p. 39
  12. ^ a b Mitchell, p. 83
  13. ^ a b c Arnold, pp. 426–30
  14. ^ a b c . 13 August 2013. Archived from the original on 22 September 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
  15. ^ Finkel (2009), p. 172
  16. ^ a b c Vos (1995), p. 267
  17. ^ a b c Hilprecht (1903), pp. 204–05
  18. ^ Rassam (1897), p. 223
  19. ^ Koldewey, p. vi
  20. ^ Rassam, p. 267
  21. ^ Hilprecht (1903), p. 264
  22. ^ a b c Walker, pp. 158–59
  23. ^ The Times (18 November 1879)
  24. ^ The Oriental Journal (January 1880)
  25. ^ Rawlinson (1880), pp. 70–97
  26. ^ Curtis, Tallis & André-Salvini, p. 59
  27. ^ Nies & Keiser (1920)
  28. ^ a b Berger, pp. 155–59
  29. ^ a b Wiesehöfer (2001), pp. 44–45.
  30. ^ a b c d Translation of the text on the Cyrus Cylinder 2017-04-06 at the Wayback Machine. Finkel, Irving.
  31. ^ a b c Pritchard
  32. ^ a b Kutsko, p. 123
  33. ^ Weissbach, p. 2
  34. ^ Schaudig, pp. 550–56
  35. ^ Hallo, p. 315
  36. ^ a b c d Schulz (2008-07-15)
  37. ^ compare "Cyrus Cylinder". Archived from the original on 2013-06-15. Retrieved 2013-04-12. with the British Museum translation at [1] 2015-10-18 at the Wayback Machine
  38. ^ Foucart (2007-08-19)
  39. ^ "Shirin Ebadi's 2003 Nobel Peace Prize lecture". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2011-03-19.
  40. ^ British Museum. "Irving Finkel". Retrieved 14 December 2010.
  41. ^ Cyrus Cylinder (press release) 2011-09-22 at the Wayback Machine. British Museum, 20 January 2010
  42. ^ Yang, Zhi (1987). "Brief Note on the Bone Cuneiform Inscriptions". Journal of Ancient Civilizations. 2: 30–33.
  43. ^ a b c Finkel, Irving, ed. (2013). The Cyrus Cylinder: The King of Persia's Proclamation from Ancient Babylon. I.B.Tauris. pp. 28–34. ISBN 978-1780760636.
  44. ^ Wu, Yuhong (1986). "A Horse-Bone Inscription copied from the Cyrus Cylinder (Line 18-21) in the Palace Museum in Beijing". Journal of Ancient Civilizations. 1: 15–20.
  45. ^ Inscription in the British Museum, Room 55
  46. ^ a b c Kuhrt (1982), p. 124
  47. ^ a b Winn Leith, p. 285
  48. ^ a b Fowler & Hekster, p. 33
  49. ^ British Museum: The Cyrus Cylinder; Kuhrt (1983), pp. 83–97; Dandamaev, pp. 52–53; Beaulieu, p. 243; van der Spek, pp. 273–85; Wiesehöfer (2001), p. 82; Briant, p. 43
  50. ^ Haubold, p. 52 fn. 24
  51. ^ British Museum e-mail (2010-01-11)
  52. ^ British Museum statement (2010-01-20)
  53. ^ a b c Kuhrt (2007), pp. 174–75.
  54. ^ Dyck, pp. 91–94.
  55. ^ Grabbe (2004), p. 267
  56. ^ Dick, p. 10
  57. ^ Smith, p. 78
  58. ^ Sherwin, p. 122.
  59. ^ a b c Haubold, p. 51
  60. ^ Haubold, p. 52
  61. ^ Bidmead, p. 137
  62. ^ Bidmead, p. 134
  63. ^ Bidmead, p. 135
  64. ^ a b Mallowan, pp. 409–11
  65. ^ For the text, see J. B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (3rd ed.; Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1969), 562a–563b.
  66. ^ Beaulieu, Paul-Alain (1989). The Reign of Nabonidus, King of Babylon 556–539 B.C. (PDF). New Haven and London: Yale University Press. p. 17. ISBN 0300043147.
  67. ^ Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 313b. This cuneiform text is called the “Verse Account of Nabonidus.”
  68. ^ Beaulieu, Reign of Nabonidus, 32.
  69. ^ Cyropaedia 4.6.3; 5.2.27; 5.4.12, 24, 26, 33; 7.5.29. The Cyropaedia refers to Belshazzar as “this young fellow who has just come to the throne.” His death is described as occurring on the night the city was captured, which was also the time of a festival (7.5.25), in agreement with the narration of these events in the book of Daniel (5:1, 30).
  70. ^ Briant, p. 43
  71. ^ Buchanan, pp. 12–13
  72. ^ Fried, p. 30
  73. ^ Oppenheim, A. Leo, in Pritchard, James B. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Princeton University Press, 1950
  74. ^ Briant, p. 41
  75. ^ Fried, p. 29
  76. ^ Walton & Hill, p. 172
  77. ^ Lincoln, p. 40
  78. ^ Masroori, pp. 13–15
  79. ^ Dandamaev, pp. 52–53
  80. ^ Brown, pp. 7–8
  81. ^ Arberry, p. 8
  82. ^ Stillman, p. 225
  83. ^ Min, p. 94
  84. ^ Evans, pp. 12–13
  85. ^ Albertz, pp. 115–16
  86. ^ Soggin, p. 295
  87. ^ Razmjou, pp. 104–125.
  88. ^ a b Razmjou, p. 122.
  89. ^ John Curtis, The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia, A New Beginning For the Middle East, pp. 31–41 ISBN 978-0714111872
  90. ^ a b Razmjou, p. 123.
  91. ^ Hurowitz, pp. 581–91
  92. ^ Some translations give "Nineveh." The relevant passage is fragmentary, but Finkel has recently concluded that it is impossible to interpret it as "Nineveh". (I. Finkel, "No Nineveh in the Cyrus Cylinder", in NABU 1997/23)
  93. ^ Lendering, Jona (5 February 2010). . Livius.org. Archived from the original on 11 March 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2007. Text adapted from Schaudig (2001). English translation adapted from Cogan's translation in Hallo & Younger (2003).
  94. ^ Dandamaev (2010-01-26)
  95. ^ Bedford, p. 113
  96. ^ Bedford, p. 134
  97. ^ a b Kuhrt (1983), pp. 83–97
  98. ^ Grabbe (2006), p. 542
  99. ^ Bedford, pp. 138–39
  100. ^ Greaves, Alan M. Miletos: A History, p. 84. Routledge, 2002. ISBN 978-0415238465
  101. ^ Bedford, p. 137
  102. ^ a b c MacGregor
  103. ^ "United Nations Note to Correspondents no. 3699, 13 October 1971" (PDF).
  104. ^ a b Wiesehöfer (1999), pp. 55–68
  105. ^ a b Pahlavi, p. 9
  106. ^ Robertson, p. 7
  107. ^ Lincoln, p. 32.
  108. ^ Housego (1971-10-15)
  109. ^ Briant, p. 47
  110. ^ a b Llewellyn-Jones, p. 104
  111. ^ Curtis, Tallis & Andre-Salvini, p. 59
  112. ^ Silverman, Helaine; Ruggles, D. Fairchild (2008). Cultural Heritage and Human Rights. Springer. p. 11. ISBN 978-0387765792.
  113. ^ Damien Kingsbury, Human Rights in Asia: A Reassessment of the Asian Values Debate (Macmillan, 2008) p. 21; Sabine C. Carey, The Politics of Human Rights: The Quest for Dignity (2010) p. 19; Paul Gordon Lauren, The Evolution of International Human Rights (2003) p. 11; Willem Adriaan Veenhoven, Case Studies on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: A World Survey: Volume 1 (1975) p. 244
  114. ^ Decolonisation, Globalisation: Language-in-Education Policy and Practice, Peter W. Martin, p. 99
  115. ^ Talbott, W.J. Which Rights Should be Universal?, p. 40. Oxford University Press US, 2005. ISBN 978-0195173475
  116. ^ Abtahi, pp. 1–38.
  117. ^ Jeffries (2005-10-22)
  118. ^ a b c Sheikholeslami (2009-10-12)
  119. ^ Wilson (2010-01-24)
  120. ^ "Iran severs cultural ties with British Museum over Persian treasure (2010-02-07)"
  121. ^ Cyrus Cylinder, world's oldest human rights charter, returns to Iran on loan, The Guardian (2010-09-10)
  122. ^ "Cyrus Cylinder warmly welcomed at home 2011-06-14 at the Wayback Machine". Tehran Times, September 26, 2010
  123. ^ "Diplomatic whirl". The Economist. 2013-03-23. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  124. ^ Esfandiari, Golnaz. Historic Cyrus Cylinder Called 'A Stranger In Its Own Home' 2010-09-18 at the Wayback Machine. "Persian Letters", Radio Free Europe. September 14, 2010
  125. ^ "Babylonian artefact to tour US". 2012-11-28. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  126. ^ "The Cyrus Cylinder travels to the US". British Museum. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  127. ^ "Tour Venues and Dates". Cyrus Cylinder US Tour 2013. 2013-02-28. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  128. ^ . Archived from the original on 2015-05-13. Retrieved 2014-06-18.
  129. ^ Anderton, Frances (4 July 2017). "Cecil Balmond Designs 'Freedom Sculpture' for Los Angeles". KCRW. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  130. ^ "Century City Freedom Sculpture unveiled on Santa Monica Boulevard median". 2017-07-05.
  131. ^ "'Los Angeles embodies diversity.' the city's new sculpture celebrating freedom is unveiled". Los Angeles Times. 5 July 2017.

Further reading

Books and journals

  • Abtahi, Hirad (2006). Abtahi, Hirad; Boas, Gideon (eds.). The Dynamics of International Criminal Justice: Essays in Honour of Sir Richard May. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. ISBN 978-9004145870.
  • Albertz, Rainer (2003). Israel in Exile: The History and Literature of the Sixth Century B.C.E. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. ISBN 978-1589830554.
  • Ansari, Ali (2007). Modern Iran: The Pahlavis and After. Harlow: Longman. ISBN 978-1405840842.
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  • Razmjou, Shahrokh (2013). "The Cyrus Cylinder: A Persian Perspective". In Finkel, Irving (ed.). The Cyrus Cylinder: The King of Persia's Proclamation from Ancient Babylon. London: published by I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd. pp. 104–125. ISBN 978-1-78076-063-6.
  • Rassam, Hormuzd (1897). Asshur and the land of Nimrod. London: Curts & Jennings.
  • Rawlinson, H. C. (1880). "Notes on a newly-discovered clay Cylinder of Cyrus the Great". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 12.
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  • Walker, C.B.F. (1972). "A recently identified fragment of the Cyrus Cylinder". Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies. 10 (10): 158–159. doi:10.2307/4300475. ISSN 0578-6967. JSTOR 4300475.
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Media articles

  • "Royal Asiatic Society". The Times. 18 November 1879.
  • "A Monument of Cyrus the Great". The Oriental Journal. London. January 1880.
  • Housego, David (1971-10-15). "Pique and peacocks in Persepolis". The Times.
  • Foucart, Stéphane (2007-08-19). "Cyrus le taiseux". Le Monde (in French). Archived from the original on 2013-01-07. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
  • Jeffries, Stuart (2005-10-22). "A private view". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
  • MacGregor, Neil (2004-07-24). "The whole world in our hands". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
  • Schulz, Matthias (15 July 2008). "Falling for Ancient Propaganda: UN Treasure Honors Persian Despot". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  • Sheikholeslami, Ali (2009-10-12). "Iran Gives British Museum 2-Month Deadline Over Cyrus Cylinder". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
  • Wilson, John (2010-01-24). "British Museum in battle with Iran over ancient 'charter of rights'". The Observer. London. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  • Staff (2010-02-07). "Iran severs cultural ties with British Museum over Persian treasure". Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
  • "Iran seeks compensation from British Museum". Tehran Times. 2010-04-18.
  • "Iran demands $300,000 from British Museum over Cyrus Cylinder delay". The Times. London. 2010-04-20. Iran is demanding that the British Museum pay $300,000 (£197,000) after it refused to hand over the Cyrus Cylinder – a cuneiform tablet regarded as the first declaration of human rights.
  • "Cyrus Cylinder, world's oldest human rights charter, returns to Iran on loan". The Guardian. London. 2010-09-10. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
  • . IRNA. 2010-09-10. Archived from the original on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
  • . IRNA. 2010-09-11. Archived from the original on 2012-03-16. Retrieved 2010-09-11.

Other sources

  • . British Museum. Archived from the original on 2012-03-21.
  • . British Museum. Archived from the original on 2008-09-03.
  • Nayeri, F. (2010-01-11). "British Museum Postpones Sending Artifact to Iran". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2010-06-25. 'The agreement has been made with our colleagues in Iran that we'll postpone the loan to investigate this exciting discovery with them,' said Hannah Boulton, head of press and marketing at the British Museum. 'That's the reason for the postponement.' […] Boulton said the latest postponement had no link to recent events.
  • The Cyrus Cylinder. Inscription in room 55: British Museum. For almost 100 years the Cylinder was regarded as ancient Mesopotamian propaganda. This changed in 1971 when the Shah of Iran used it as a central image in his own propaganda celebrating 2500 years of Iranian monarchy. In Iran, the Cylinder has appeared on coins, banknotes and stamps. Despite being a Babylonian document it has become part of Iran's cultural identity.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  • The British Museum (2010-01-20). "Statements regarding the Cyrus Cylinder". British Museum. Retrieved 2010-06-01.
  • "Note to Correspondents no. 3699" (PDF). United Nations. 1971-10-13. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
  • Lendering, Jona (2007-01-28). . livius.org. Archived from the original on 2017-07-22. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
  • Dandamaev, M.A. (2010-01-26). "Cyrus II The Great". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
  • Dandamaev, M.A. (2010-01-26). "The Cyrus Cylinder". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 2010-09-13.
  • "United Nations Press Release SG/SM/1553/HQ263" (PDF). 1971-10-14. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
  • "Gift of Iran to the United Nations". United Nations. August 1985. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
  • . United Nations. Archived from the original on 2010-12-16. Retrieved 2010-09-13.

Editions and translations

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cyrus cylinder.
  • Rawlinson, H.C., & Th. G. Pinches, A Selection from the Miscellaneous Inscriptions of Assyria and Babylonia (1884, 1909 London: fragment A only).
  • Rogers, Robert William: Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (1912), New York, Eaton & Mains (Online 2006-08-13 at the Wayback Machine: fragment A only).
  • Pritchard, James B. (ed.): Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (ANET) (1950, 1955, 1969). Translation by A. L. Oppenheim. (fragment A and B).
  • P.-R. Berger, "Der Kyros-Zylinder mit dem Zusatzfragment BIN II Nr.32 und die akkidischen Personennamen im Danielbuch" in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 65 (1975) 192–234
  • Hallo, W.H.; Younger, K.L., eds. (2003). The Context of Scripture: Monumental Inscriptions from the Biblical World. Translated by Cogan, Mordechai. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-9004106192.
  • Brosius, Maria (ed.): The Persian Empire from Cyrus II to Artaxerxes I (2000), London Association of Classical Teachers (LACT) 16, London.
  • Schaudig, Hanspeter (2001). Die Inschriften Nabonids von Babylon und Kyros' des Großen, samt den in ihrem Umfeld entstandenen Tendenzschriften. Textausgabe und Grammatik (in German). Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.
  • Michalowski, P. (2007). "The Cyrus Cylinder". In Chavalas, Mark W. (ed.). Ancient Near East: Historical Sources in Translation. Blackwell Sourcebooks in Ancient History. Wiley. pp. 426–30. ISBN 978-0631235811.
  • Lendering, Jona (5 February 2010). . Livius.org. Archived from the original on 11 March 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2007. Text adapted from Schaudig (2001). English translation adapted from Cogan's translation in Hallo & Younger (2003).
  • . Translated by Finkel, Irving. British Museum. 2012. Archived from the original on 21 December 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
  • Finkel, Irving (2013). "The Cyrus Cylinder: The Babylonian perspective". The Cyrus Cylinder: The King of Persia's Proclamation from Ancient Babylon. I. B. Tauris. pp. 4ff. ISBN 978-1780760636.
  • "Cyrus Cylinder in Persian" (PDF) (in Persian). Translated by Razmjou, Shahrokh. 2013 [2010]. Retrieved 1 October 2018. Earlier version 2012-08-16 at the Wayback Machine dated to 13 September 2010.

External links

  • British Museum description including translation by Irving Finkel
  • Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, traces 2600 years of Middle Eastern history through this single object.
  • The Cyrus Cylinder at World History Encyclopedia
  • High-resolution photographs from Livius.org
This article is about an item held in the British Museum. The object reference is 1880,0617.1941.

July 20, 2023
cyrus, cylinder, ancient, clay, cylinder, broken, into, several, pieces, which, written, achaemenid, royal, inscription, akkadian, cuneiform, script, name, persian, king, cyrus, great, dates, from, century, discovered, ruins, ancient, mesopotamian, city, babyl. The Cyrus Cylinder is an ancient clay cylinder now broken into several pieces on which is written a Achaemenid royal inscription in Akkadian cuneiform script in the name of Persian king Cyrus the Great 2 3 It dates from the 6th century BC and was discovered in the ruins of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon now in modern Iraq in 1879 2 It is currently in the possession of the British Museum which sponsored the expedition that discovered the cylinder It was created and used as a foundation deposit following the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 BC when the Neo Babylonian Empire was invaded by Cyrus and incorporated into his Persian Empire Cyrus CylinderThe Cyrus Cylinder obverse and reverse sides and transcriptionMaterialBaked claySize21 9 centimetres 8 6 in x 10 centimetres 3 9 in maximum x end A 7 8 centimetres 3 1 in x end B 7 9 centimetres 3 1 in 1 WritingAkkadian cuneiform scriptCreatedAbout 539 538 BCPeriod cultureAchaemenid Empire 1 DiscoveredBabylon Baghdad Vilayet of Ottoman Iraq by Hormuzd Rassam in March 1879 1 Present locationRoom 52 1 British Museum London IdentificationBM 90920 1 Registration1880 0617 1941 1 The text on the Cylinder praises Cyrus sets out his genealogy and portrays him as a king from a line of kings The Babylonian king Nabonidus who was defeated and deposed by Cyrus is denounced as an impious oppressor of the people of Babylonia and his low born origins are implicitly contrasted to Cyrus kingly heritage The victorious Cyrus is portrayed as having been chosen by the chief Babylonian god Marduk to restore peace and order to the Babylonians The text states that Cyrus was welcomed by the people of Babylon as their new ruler and entered the city in peace It appeals to Marduk to protect and help Cyrus and his son Cambyses It extols Cyrus as a benefactor of the citizens of Babylonia who improved their lives repatriated displaced people and restored temples and cult sanctuaries across Mesopotamia and elsewhere in the region It concludes with a description of how Cyrus repaired the city wall of Babylon and found a similar inscription placed there by an earlier king 3 The Cylinder s text has traditionally been seen by biblical scholars as corroborative evidence of Cyrus policy of the repatriation of the Jewish people following their Babylonian captivity 4 an act that the Book of Ezra attributes to Cyrus 5 as the text refers to the restoration of cult sanctuaries and repatriation of deported peoples 6 This interpretation has been disputed as the text identifies only Mesopotamian sanctuaries and makes no mention of Jews Jerusalem or Judea 7 Nonetheless it has been seen as a sign of Cyrus s relatively enlightened approach towards cultural and religious diversity The former Director of the British Museum Neil MacGregor said that the cylinder was the first attempt we know about running a society a state with different nationalities and faiths a new kind of statecraft 8 In modern times the Cylinder was adopted as a national symbol of Iran by the ruling Pahlavi dynasty which put it on display in Tehran in 1971 to commemorate the 2 500 year celebration of the Persian Empire 9 Princess Ashraf Pahlavi presented United Nations Secretary General U Thant with a replica of the Cylinder The princess asserted that the heritage of Cyrus was the heritage of human understanding tolerance courage compassion and above all human liberty 10 Her brother Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi promoted the Cylinder as a charter of human rights though this interpretation has been described by various historians as rather anachronistic and tendentious 11 12 13 14 Contents 1 Discovery 2 Description 2 1 Text 2 2 Associated fragments 2 3 Relation to a Chinese bone inscription 3 Interpretations 3 1 Mesopotamian and Persian tradition and propaganda 3 1 1 Similarities with other royal inscriptions 3 1 2 Analysis of the Cyrus Cylinder s claims 3 1 2 1 Vilification of Nabonidus 3 1 2 2 Nabonidus as actually seen in Babylon 3 1 2 3 Nabonidus as seen in the Harran Stela contrasted with the Cyrus Cylinder 3 1 2 4 Conquest and local support 3 1 2 5 Restoration of temples 3 1 2 6 Internal policy 3 1 2 7 Differences between the Cyrus Cylinder and previous Babylonian and Assyrian cylinders 3 2 Biblical interpretations 3 3 Human rights 3 3 1 Pahlavi Iranian government s view 3 3 2 Reception in the Islamic Republic 3 3 3 Scholarly views 4 Exhibition history 5 The Freedom Sculpture 6 See also 7 Notes and references 8 Further reading 8 1 Books and journals 8 2 Media articles 8 3 Other sources 8 4 Editions and translations 9 External linksDiscovery Edit Hormuzd Rassam in Mosul circa 1854 The Cyrus Cylinder was discovered during Rassam s excavations in Babylon in February March 1879 The Assyro British archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam discovered the Cyrus Cylinder in March 1879 during a lengthy programme of excavations in Mesopotamia carried out for the British Museum 15 It had been placed as a foundation deposit in the foundations of the Esagila the city s main temple 3 Rassam s expedition followed on from an earlier dig carried out in 1850 by the British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard who excavated three mounds in the same area but found little of importance 16 In 1877 Layard became Britain s ambassador to the Ottoman Empire which ruled Mesopotamia at the time He helped Rassam who had been his assistant in the 1850 dig to obtain a firman decree from the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II to continue the earlier excavations The firman was only valid for a year but a second firman with much more liberal terms was issued in 1878 It was granted for two years through to 15 October 1880 with the promise of an extension to 1882 if required 17 The Sultan s decree authorised Rassam to pack and dispatch to England any antiquities he found provided however there were no duplicates A representative of the Sultan was instructed to be present at the dig to examine the objects as they were uncovered 18 With permission secured Rassam initiated a large scale excavation at Babylon and other sites on behalf of the Trustees of the British Museum 16 He undertook the excavations in four distinct phases In between each phase he returned to England to bring back his finds and raise more funds for further work The Cyrus Cylinder was found on the second of his four expeditions to Mesopotamia which began with his departure from London on 8 October 1878 He arrived in his home town of Mosul on 16 November and travelled down the Tigris to Baghdad which he reached on 30 January 1879 During February and March he supervised excavations on a number of Babylonian sites including Babylon itself 17 Map of the site of Babylon in 1829 Hormuzd Rassam s diggers found the Cyrus Cylinder in the mound of Tell Amran ibn Ali marked with an E at the centre of the map under which lay the ruined Esagila temple He soon uncovered a number of important buildings including the Esagila temple a major shrine to the chief Babylonian god Marduk although its identity was not fully confirmed until the German archaeologist Robert Koldewey s excavation of 1900 19 The excavators found a large number of business documents written on clay tablets buried in the temple s foundations where they discovered the Cyrus Cylinder 16 Rassam gave conflicting accounts of where his discoveries were made He wrote in his memoirs Asshur and the land of Nimrod that the Cylinder had been found in a mound at the southern end of Babylon near the village of Jumjuma or Jimjima 20 21 However in a letter sent on 20 November 1879 to Samuel Birch the Keeper of Oriental Antiquities at the British Museum he wrote The Cylinder of Cyrus was found at Omran Tell Amran ibn Ali with about six hundred pieces of inscribed terracottas before I left Baghdad 22 He left Baghdad on 2 April returning to Mosul and departing from there on 2 May for a journey to London which lasted until 19 June 17 The discovery was announced to the public by Sir Henry Rawlinson the President of the Royal Asiatic Society at a meeting of the Society on 17 November 1879 23 He described it as one of the most interesting historical records in the cuneiform character that has yet been brought to light though he erroneously described it as coming from the ancient city of Borsippa rather than Babylon 24 Rawlinson s Notes on a newly discovered Clay Cylinder of Cyrus the Great were published in the society s journal the following year including the first partial translation of the text 25 Description EditThe Cyrus Cylinder is a barrel shaped cylinder of baked clay measuring 22 5 centimetres 8 9 in by 10 centimetres 3 9 in at its maximum diameter 1 It was created in several stages around a cone shaped core of clay within which there are large grey stone inclusions It was built up with extra layers of clay to give it a cylindrical shape before a fine surface slip of clay was added to the outer layer on which the text is inscribed It was excavated in several fragments having apparently broken apart in antiquity 1 Today it exists in two main fragments known as A and B which were reunited in 1972 1 The main body of the Cylinder discovered by Rassam in 1879 is fragment A It underwent restoration in 1961 when it was re fired and plaster filling was added 1 The smaller fragment B is a section measuring 8 6 centimetres 3 4 in by 5 6 centimetres 2 2 in The latter fragment was acquired by J B Nies 22 of Yale University from an antiquities dealer 26 Nies published the text in 1920 27 The fragment was apparently broken off the main body of the Cylinder during the original excavations in 1879 and was either removed from the excavations or was retrieved from one of Rassam s waste dumps It was not confirmed as part of the Cylinder until Paul Richard Berger of the University of Munster definitively identified it in 1970 28 Yale University lent the fragment to the British Museum temporarily but in practice indefinitely in exchange for a suitable cuneiform tablet from the British Museum collection 1 Although the Cylinder clearly post dates Cyrus the Great s conquest of Babylon in 539 BC the date of its creation is unclear It is commonly said to date to the early part of Cyrus s reign over Babylon some time after 539 BC The British Museum puts the Cylinder s date of origin at between 539 and 530 BC 4 Text Edit Wikisource has original text related to this article Cyrus cylinder The surviving inscription on the Cyrus Cylinder consists of 45 lines of text written in Akkadian cuneiform script The first 35 lines are on fragment A and the remainder are on fragment B 28 A number of lines at the start and end of the text are too badly damaged for more than a few words to be legible The text is written in an extremely formulaic style that can be divided into six distinct parts Extract from the Cyrus Cylinder lines 15 21 giving the genealogy of Cyrus and an account of his capture of Babylon in 539 BC E A Wallis Budge 1884 Lines 1 19 an introduction reviling Nabonidus the previous king of Babylon and associating Cyrus with the god Marduk Lines 20 22 detailing Cyrus s royal titles and genealogy and his peaceful entry to Babylon Lines 22 34 a commendation of Cyrus s policy of restoring Babylon Lines 34 35 a prayer to Marduk on behalf of Cyrus and his son Cambyses Lines 36 37 a declaration that Cyrus has enabled the people to live in peace and has increased the offerings made to the gods Lines 38 45 details of the building activities ordered by Cyrus in Babylon 29 Sample detail image showing cuneiform script The beginning of the text is partly broken the surviving content reprimands the character of the deposed Babylonian king Nabonidus It lists his alleged crimes charging him with the desecration of the temples of the gods and the imposition of forced labor upon the populace According to the proclamation as a result of these offenses the god Marduk abandoned Babylon and sought a more righteous king Marduk called forth Cyrus to enter Babylon and become its new ruler 30 In Nabonidus s mind reverential fear of Marduk king of the gods came to an end He did yet more evil to his city every day his people he brought ruin on them all by a yoke without relief Marduk inspected and checked all the countries seeking for the upright king of his choice He took the hand of Cyrus king of the city of Anshan and called him by his name proclaiming him aloud for the kingship over all of everything 30 Midway through the text the writer switches to a first person narrative in the voice of Cyrus addressing the reader directly A list of his titles is given in a Mesopotamian rather than Persian style I am Cyrus king of the world great king powerful king king of Babylon king of Sumer and Akkad king of the four quarters of the earth son of Cambyses great king king of Anshan descendant of Teispes great king king of Anshan the perpetual seed of kingship whose reign Bel Marduk and Nebo love and with whose kingship to their joy they concern themselves 30 He describes the pious deeds he performed after his conquest he restored peace to Babylon and the other cities sacred to Marduk freeing their inhabitants from their yoke and he brought relief to their dilapidated housing thus putting an end to their main complaints 31 He repaired the ruined temples in the cities he conquered restored their cults and returned their sacred images as well as their former inhabitants which Nabonidus had taken to Babylon 31 Near the end of the inscription Cyrus highlights his restoration of Babylon s city wall saying I saw within it an inscription of Ashurbanipal a king who preceded me 30 The remainder is missing but presumably describes Cyrus s rededication of the gateway mentioned 32 A partial transcription by F H Weissbach in 1911 was supplanted by a much more complete transcription after the identification of the B fragment 33 this is now available in German and in English 34 31 35 Several editions of the full text of the Cyrus Cylinder are available online incorporating both A and B fragments A false translation of the text affirming among other things the abolition of slavery and the right to self determination a minimum wage and asylum has been promoted on the Internet and elsewhere 36 As well as making claims that are not found on the real cylinder it refers to the Zoroastrian divinity Ahura Mazda rather than the Mesopotamian god Marduk 37 The false translation has been widely circulated alluding to its claim that Cyrus supposedly has stated that Every country shall decide for itself whether or not it wants my leadership 36 Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi in her acceptance speech described Cyrus as the very emperor who proclaimed at the pinnacle of power 2 500 years ago that he would not reign over the people if they did not wish it 36 38 39 Associated fragments Edit The British Museum announced in January 2010 that two inscribed clay fragments which had been in the museum s collection since 1881 had been identified as part of a cuneiform tablet that was inscribed with the same text as the Cyrus Cylinder The fragments had come from the small site of Dailem near Babylon and the identification was made by Professor Wilfred Lambert formerly of the University of Birmingham and Irving Finkel curator in charge of the museum s Department of the Middle East 40 41 Relation to a Chinese bone inscription Edit In 1983 two fossilized horse bones inscribed with cuneiform signs surfaced in China which Professor Oliver Gurney at Oxford later identified as coming from the Cyrus Cylinder The discovery of these objects aroused much discussion about possible connections between ancient Mesopotamia and China although their authenticity was doubted by many scholars from the beginning and they are now generally regarded as forgeries The history of the putative artifact goes back almost a century 42 The earliest record goes back to a Chinese doctor named Xue Shenwei who sometime prior to 1928 was shown a photo of a rubbing of one of the bones by an antiquities dealer named Zhang Yi an 43 Although not able to view the bones at that time Xue Shenwei later acquired one of them from another antiquities dealer named Wang Dongting in 1935 and then the second via a personal connection named Ke Yanling around 1940 While Xue did not recognize the script on the bones he guessed at its antiquity and buried the bones for safekeeping during the Cultural Revolution Then in 1983 Xue presented the bones to the Palace Museum in Beijing where Liu Jiuan and Wang Nanfang of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage undertook their study 43 These officials identified the script as cuneiform and asked the Assyriologists Chi Yang and Wu Yuhong to work on the inscriptions Identification of the source text proceeded slowly until 1985 when Wu Yuhong along with Oxford Assyriologist Stephanie Dalley and Oliver Gurney recognized the text in one bone as coming from the Cyrus Cylinder One year later Wu Yuhong presented his findings at the 33rd Rencontre Assyriologique and published them in a journal article 44 After that the second bone inscription remained undeciphered until 2010 when Irving Finkel worked on it In that same year the British Museum held a conference dedicated to the artifacts Based on the serious textual errors in the inscription including the omission of a large number of signs from the Cyrus Cylinder Wu Yuhong argued the inscriptions were most likely copied from the cylinder while housed in the British Museum or from an early modern publication based upon it However he acknowledged the remote possibility it was copied in late antiquity 43 Irving Finkel disputed this conclusion based on the relative obscurity of the Cyrus Cylinder until recent decades and the mismatch in paleography between the bone inscriptions and the hand copies found in early editions from the 1880s Finally after the workshop concluded an 1884 edition of the Cyrus Cylinder by E A Wallis Budge came to Irving Finkel s attention This publication used an idiosyncratic typeface and featured a handcopy for only a section of the whole cylinder However the typeface in that edition matched the paleography on the bone inscriptions and the extract of the cylinder published in the book matched that of the bone as well This convinced Finkel that the bone inscriptions were early modern forgeries and that has remained the majority opinion since then Interpretations EditMesopotamian and Persian tradition and propaganda Edit According to the British Museum the Cyrus Cylinder reflects a long tradition in Mesopotamia where from as early as the third millennium BC kings began their reigns with declarations of reforms 4 Cyrus s declaration stresses his legitimacy as the king and is a conspicuous statement of his respect for the religious and political traditions of Babylon The British Museum and scholars of the period describe it as an instrument of ancient Mesopotamian propaganda 45 46 The text is a royal building inscription a genre which had no equivalent in Old Persian literature It illustrates how Cyrus co opted local traditions and symbols to legitimize his conquest and control of Babylon 32 47 Many elements of the text were drawn from long standing Mesopotamian themes of legitimizing rule in Babylonia the preceding king is reprimanded and he is proclaimed to have been abandoned by the gods for his wickedness the new king has gained power through the divine will of the gods the new king rights the wrongs of his predecessor addressing the welfare of the people the sanctuaries of the gods are rebuilt or restored offerings to the gods are made or increased and the blessings of the gods are sought and repairs are made to the whole city in the manner of earlier rightful kings 3 Both continuity and discontinuity are emphasized in the text of the Cylinder It asserts the virtue of Cyrus as a gods fearing king of a traditional Mesopotamian type On the other hand it constantly discredits Nabonidus reviling the deposed king s deeds and even his ancestry and portraying him as an impious destroyer of his own people As Fowler and Hekster note this creates a problem for a monarch who chooses to buttress his claim to legitimacy by appropriating the symbolic capital of his predecessors 48 The Cylinder s reprimand of Nabonidus also discredits Babylonian royal authority by association It is perhaps for this reason that the Achaemenid rulers made greater use of Assyrian rather than Babylonian royal iconography and tradition in their declarations the Cylinder refers to the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal as my predecessor rather than any native Babylonian ruler 48 The Cylinder itself is part of a continuous Mesopotamian tradition of depositing a wide variety of symbolic items including animal sacrifices stone tablets terracotta cones cylinders and figures Newly crowned kings of Babylon would make public declarations of their own righteousness when beginning their reigns often in the form of declarations that were deposited in the foundations of public buildings 49 Some contained messages while others did not and they had a number of purposes elaboration of a building s value commemoration of the ruler or builder and the magical sanctification of the building through the invocation of divine protection The cylinder was not intended to be seen again after its burial but the text inscribed on it would have been used for public purposes Archive copies were kept of important inscriptions and the Cylinder s text may likewise have been copied 50 In January 2010 the British Museum announced that two cuneiform tablets in its collection had been found to be inscribed with the same text as that on the Cyrus Cylinder 51 which according to the museum show that the text of the Cylinder was probably a proclamation that was widely distributed across the Persian Empire 52 A statue of the cylinder is now on exhibit in Los Angeles on the Avenue of the Stars as a gift from the Persian people to the city of Los Angeles Similarities with other royal inscriptions Edit The Nabonidus CylinderThe Cyrus Cylinder bears striking similarities to older Mesopotamian royal inscriptions Two notable examples are the Cylinder of Marduk apla iddina II who seized the Babylonian throne in 722 1 BC and the annals of Sargon II of Assyria who conquered Babylon twelve years later As a conqueror Marduk apla iddina faced many of the same problems of legitimacy that Cyrus did when he conquered Babylon He declares himself to have been chosen personally by Marduk who ensured his victory When he took power he performed the sacred rites and restored the sacred shrines He states that he found a royal inscription placed in the temple foundations by an earlier Babylonian king which he left undisturbed and honored All of these claims also appear in Cyrus s Cylinder Twelve years later the Assyrian king Sargon II defeated and exiled Marduk apla iddina taking up the kingship of Babylonia Sargon s annals describe how he took on the duties of a Babylonian sovereign honouring the gods maintaining their temples and respecting and upholding the privileges of the urban elite Again Cyrus s Cylinder makes exactly the same points Nabonidus Cyrus s deposed predecessor as king of Babylon commissioned foundation texts on clay cylinders such as the Cylinder of Nabonidus also in the British Museum that follows the same basic formula 53 The text of the Cylinder thus indicates a strong continuity with centuries of Babylonian tradition as part of an established rhetoric advanced by conquerors 53 As Kuhrt puts it The Cylinder reflects the pressure that Babylonian citizens were able to bring to bear on the new royal claimant In this context the reign of the defeated predecessor was automatically described as bad and against the divine will how else could he have been defeated By implication of course all his acts became inevitably and retrospectively tainted 53 The familiarity with long established Babylonian tropes suggests that the Cylinder was authored by the Babylonian priests of Marduk working at the behest of Cyrus 54 It can be compared with another work of around the same time the Verse Account of Nabonidus in which the former Babylonian ruler is excoriated as the enemy of the priests of Marduk and Cyrus is presented as the liberator of Babylon 55 Both works make a point of stressing Cyrus s qualifications as a king from a line of kings in contrast to the non royal ancestry of Nabonidus who is described by the Cylinder as merely maţu insignificant 56 The Verse Account is so similar to the Cyrus Cylinder inscription that the two texts have been dubbed an example of literary dependence not the direct dependence of one upon the other but mutual dependence upon a common source This is characterised by the historian Morton Smith as the propaganda put out in Babylonia by Cyrus s agents shortly before Cyrus s conquest to prepare the way of their lord 57 This viewpoint has been disputed as Simon J Sherwin of the University of Cambridge puts it the Cyrus Cylinder and the Verse Account are after the event compositions which reuse existing Mesopotamian literary themes and do not need to be explained as the product of pre conquest Persian propaganda 58 The German historian Hanspeter Schaudig has identified a line on the Cylinder He i e Marduk saved his city Babylon from its oppression with a line from tablet VI of the Babylonian Epic of Creation Enuma Elis in which Marduk builds Babylon 59 Johannes Haubold suggests that reference represents Cyrus s takeover as a moment of ultimate restoration not just of political and religious institutions but of the cosmic order underpinning the universe 60 Analysis of the Cyrus Cylinder s claims Edit Stele depicting Nabonidus praying to the moon sun and the planet Venus The Babylonian king s religious practices were harshly condemned by the Cyrus Cylinder s inscription Vilification of Nabonidus Edit The Cyrus Cylinder s vilification of Nabonidus is consistent with other Persian propaganda regarding the deposed king s rule In contrast to the Cylinder s depiction of Nabonidus as an illegitimate ruler who ruined his country the reign of Nabonidus was largely peaceful he was recognised as a legitimate king and he undertook a variety of building projects and military campaigns commensurate with his claim to be the king of Babylon the universe and the four corners of the Earth 61 Nabonidus as actually seen in Babylon Edit The Assyriologist Paul Alain Beaulieu has interpreted Nabonidus s exaltation of the moon god Sin as an outright usurpation of Marduk s prerogatives by the moon god 62 Although the Babylonian king continued to make rich offerings to Marduk his greater devotion to Sin was unacceptable to the Babylonian priestly elite 63 Nabonidus came from the unfashionable north of Babylonia introduced foreign gods and went into a lengthy self imposed exile which was said to have prevented the celebration of the vital New Year festival 64 Nabonidus as seen in the Harran Stela contrasted with the Cyrus Cylinder Edit The Harran Stela 65 is generally acknowledged as a genuine document commissioned by Nabonidus 66 In it Nabonidus seeks to glorify his own accomplishments notably his restoration of the Elhulhul Temple which was devoted to the moon god Sin In this regard the Harran Stela verifies the picture that is dwelt on in the Cyrus Cylinder that Nabonidus had largely abandoned the homage due to Marduk chief god of Babylon in favor of the worship of Sin Since his mother Addagoppe was apparently a priestess of Sin or at least a lifelong devotee this helps explain the unwise political decision regarding Marduk on the part of Nabonidus a decision that Cyrus takes great advantage of in the Cyrus Cylinder His mother was also a resident of Harran which affords another reason why Nabonidus moved there in the third year of his reign 553 BC at which time he entrusted the Camp to his oldest son Belshazzar the first born He let everything go entrusted the kingship to him 67 In at least one respect however the Harran Stela is incongruous with the portrayal of events in the Cyrus Cylinder In the Stela Nabonidus lists the enemies of Babylon as the king of Egypt the Medes and the land of the Arabs all the hostile kings The significance of this lies in the date the Stela was composed According to Paul Alain Beaulieu its composition dates to the latter part of the reign of Nabonidus probably the fourteenth or fifteenth year i e 542 540 BC 68 The problem with this is that according to the current consensus view based largely on the Cyrus Cylinder and later Persian documents that followed in its genre the Persians should have been named here as a major enemy of Babylon at a time three years or less before the fall of the city to the forces under Cyrus Nabonidus however names the Medes not the Persians as a main enemy as king of the realm he would certainly know who his enemies were By naming the Medes instead of the Persians the Harran Stela is more in conformity with the narration of events in Xenophon s Cyropaedia where Cyrus and the Persians were under the de jure suzerainty of the Medes until shortly after the fall of Babylon at which time Cyrus king of Persia became king of the Medes as well A further discussion of the relationship of the Harran Stela Babylonian propaganda to the Cyrus Cylinder Persian propaganda is found on the Harran Stela page including a discussion of why the Cyrus Cylinder and later Persian texts never name Belshazzar despite his close association with events associated with the fall of Babylon as related both in the Bible Daniel chapter 5 and in Xenophon s Cyropaedia 69 Conquest and local support Edit Cyrus s conquest of Babylonia was resisted by Nabonidus and his supporters as the Battle of Opis demonstrated Iranologist Pierre Briant comments that it is doubtful that even before the fall of Babylon Cyrus was impatiently awaited by a population desperate for a liberator 70 However Cyrus s takeover as king does appear to have been welcomed by some of the Babylonian population 71 The Judaic historian Lisbeth S Fried says that there is little evidence that the high ranking priests of Babylonia during the Achaemenid period were Persians and characterises them as Babylonian collaborators 72 The text presents Cyrus as entering Babylon peacefully and being welcomed by the population as a liberator This presents an implicit contrast with previous conquerors notably the Assyrian rulers Tukulti Ninurta I who invaded and plundered Babylon in the 12th century BC and Sennacherib who did the same thing 150 years before Cyrus conquered the region 13 The massacre and enslavement of conquered people was common practice and was explicitly highlighted by conquerors in victory statements The Cyrus Cylinder presents a very different message Johannes Haubold notes that it portrays Cyrus s takeover as a harmonious moment of convergence between Babylonian and Persian history not a natural disaster but the salvation of Babylonia 59 However the Cylinder s account of Cyrus s conquest clearly does not tell the whole story as it suppresses any mention of the earlier conflict between the Persians and the Babylonians 59 Max Mallowan describes it as a skilled work of tendentious history 64 The text omits the Battle of Opis in which Cyrus s forces defeated and apparently massacred Nabonidus s army 3 73 74 Nor does it explain a two week gap reported by the Nabonidus Chronicle between the Persian entry into Babylon and the surrender of the Esagila temple Lisbeth S Fried suggests that there may have been a siege or stand off between the Persians and the temple s defenders and priests about whose fate the Cylinder and Chronicle makes no mention She speculates that they were killed or expelled by the Persians and replaced by more pro Persian members of the Babylonian priestly elite 75 As Walton and Hill put it the claim of a wholly peaceful takeover acclaimed by the people is standard conqueror s rhetoric and may obscure other facts 76 Describing the claim of one s own armies being welcomed as liberators as one of the great imperial fantasies Bruce Lincoln Professor of Divinity at the University of Chicago notes that the Babylonian population repeatedly revolted against Persian rule in 522 BC 521 BC 484 BC and 482 BC though not against Cyrus or his son Cambeses The rebels sought to restore national independence and the line of native Babylonian kings perhaps an indication that they were not as favourably disposed towards the Persians as the Cylinder suggests 77 Restoration of temples Edit The inscription goes on to describe Cyrus returning to their original sanctuaries the statues of the gods that Nabonidus had brought to the city before the Persian invasion This restored the normal cultic order to the satisfaction of the priesthood It alludes to temples being restored and deported groups being returned to their homelands but does not imply an empire wide programme of restoration Instead it refers to specific areas in the border region between Babylonia and Persia including sites that had been devastated by earlier Babylonian military campaigns The Cylinder indicates that Cyrus sought to acquire the loyalty of the ravaged regions by funding reconstruction the return of temple properties and the repatriation of the displaced populations However it is unclear how much actually changed on the ground there is no archaeological evidence for any rebuilding or repairing of Mesopotamian temples during Cyrus s reign 47 Internal policy Edit The Persians policy towards their subject people as described by the Cylinder was traditionally viewed as an expression of tolerance moderation and generosity on a scale previously unknown 78 The policies of Cyrus toward subjugated nations have been contrasted to those of the Assyrians and Babylonians who had treated subject peoples harshly he permitted the resettling of those who had been previously deported and sponsored the reconstruction of religious buildings 79 Cyrus was often depicted positively in Western tradition by sources such as the Old Testament of the Bible and the Greek writers Herodotus and Xenophon 80 81 The Cyropaedia of Xenophon was particularly influential during the Renaissance when Cyrus was romanticised as an exemplary model of a virtuous and successful ruler 82 Modern historians argue that while Cyrus s behavior was indeed conciliatory it was driven by the needs of the Persian Empire and was not an expression of personal tolerance per se 83 The empire was too large to be centrally directed Cyrus followed a policy of using existing territorial units to implement a decentralized system of government The magnanimity shown by Cyrus won him praise and gratitude from those he spared 84 The policy of toleration described by the Cylinder was thus as biblical historian Rainer Albertz puts it an expression of conservative support for local regions to serve the political interests of the whole empire 85 Another biblical historian Alberto Soggin comments that it was more a matter of practicality and economy as it was simpler and indeed cost less to obtain the spontaneous collaboration of their subjects at a local level than to have to impose their sovereignty by force 86 Differences between the Cyrus Cylinder and previous Babylonian and Assyrian cylinders Edit There are scholars who agree that the Cyrus Cylinder demonstrates a break from past traditions and the ushering in of a new era 87 A comparison of the Cyrus Cylinder with the inscriptions of previous conquerors of Babylon highlights this sharply For instance when Sennacherib king of Assyria 705 681 BC captured the city in 690 BC after a 15 month siege Babylon endured a dreadful destruction and massacre 88 Sennacharib describes how having captured the King of Babylon he had him tied up in the middle of the city like a pig Then he describes how he destroyed Babylon and filled the city with corpses looted its wealth broke its gods burned and destroyed its houses down to foundations demolished its walls and temples and dumped them in the canals This is in stark contrast to Cyrus the Great and the Cyrus Cylinder The past Assyrian and Babylonian tradition of victor s justice was a common treatment for a defeated people at this time Sennacherib s tone for instance reflected his relish of and pride in massacre and destruction which is totally at odds with the message of the Cyrus Cylinder 88 89 Another difference between the previously mentioned texts and the Cyrus Cylinder is that no other king ever returned captives to their homes as Cyrus did 90 The Assyrians sometimes gave limited religious freedom to local cults and the people they conquered but after a military conquest the conquered people usually had to submit to the exalted might of the Assyrian god Ashur their own shrines and gods were demolished and people put under the yoke of Ashur Even Babylon itself did not show tolerance towards other beliefs and cults for it had destroyed the temple of Jerusalem as well as the temple in Harran furthermore Nabonidus took other gods from their sacred shrines and carried them to Babylon This clearly shows that the Cyrus Cylinder was not a typical declaration that was keeping with the old traditions of the past 90 Biblical interpretations Edit Main article Cyrus the Great in the Bible Further information The Return to Zion Places in Mesopotamia mentioned by the Cyrus Cylinder Most of the localities it mentions in connection with the restoration of temples were in eastern and northern Mesopotamia in territories that had been ruled by the deposed Babylonian king Nabonidus excepting Susa The Bible records that some Jews who were exiled by the Babylonians returned to their homeland from Babylon where they had been settled by Nebuchadnezzar to rebuild the temple following an edict from Cyrus The Book of Ezra 1 4 5 provides a narrative account of the rebuilding project 91 Scholars have linked one particular passage from the Cylinder to the Old Testament account 46 From 92 to Assur and from Susa Agade Esnunna Zabban Me Turnu Der as far as the region of Gutium the sacred centers on the other side of the Tigris whose sanctuaries had been abandoned for a long time I returned the images of the gods who had resided there i e in Babylon to their places and I let them dwell in eternal abodes I gathered all their inhabitants and returned to them their dwellings 93 This passage has often been interpreted as a reference to the benign policy instituted by Cyrus of allowing exiled peoples such as the Jews to return to their original homelands 6 The Cylinder s inscription has been linked with the reproduction in the Book of Ezra of two texts that are claimed to be edicts issued by Cyrus concerning the repatriation of the Jews and the reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem 94 The two edicts one in Hebrew and one in Aramaic are substantially different in content and tone leading some historians to argue that one or both may be a post hoc fabrication 95 The question of their authenticity remains unresolved though it is widely believed that they do reflect some sort of Persian royal policy albeit perhaps not one that was couched in the terms given in the text of the biblical edicts The dispute over the authenticity of the biblical edicts has prompted interest in this passage from the Cyrus Cylinder specifically concerning the question of whether it indicates that Cyrus had a general policy of repatriating subject peoples and restoring their sanctuaries 96 The text of the Cylinder is very specific listing places in Mesopotamia and the neighboring regions It does not describe any general release or return of exiled communities but focuses on the return of Babylonian deities to their own home cities It emphasises the re establishment of local religious norms reversing the alleged neglect of Nabonidus a theme that Amelie Kuhrt describes as a literary device used to underline the piety of Cyrus as opposed to the blasphemy of Nabonidus She suggests that Cyrus had simply adopted a policy used by earlier Assyrian rulers of giving privileges to cities in key strategic or politically sensitive regions and that there was no general policy as such 97 Lester L Grabbe a historian of early Judaism has written that the religious policy of the Persians was not that different from the basic practice of the Assyrians and Babylonians before them in tolerating but not promoting local cults other than their own gods 98 Cyrus may have seen Jerusalem situated in a strategic location between Mesopotamia and Egypt as worth patronising for political reasons His Achaemenid successors generally supported indigenous cults in subject territories and thereby curried favour with the cults devotees 99 Conversely Persian kings might destroy the shrines of peoples who had rebelled against them as happened at Miletos in 494 BC following the Ionian Revolt 100 The Cylinder s text does not describe any general policy of a return of exiles or mention any sanctuary outside Babylonia 7 therein supporting Peter Ross Bedford s argument that the Cylinder is not a manifesto for a general policy regarding indigenous cults and their worshippers throughout the empire 101 Amelie Kuhrt notes that the purely Babylonian context of the Cylinder provides no proof that Cyrus gave attention to the Jewish exiles or the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem 46 and biblical historian Bob Becking concludes that it has nothing to do with Judeans Jews or Jerusalem Becking also points to the lack of reference to the Jews in surviving Achaemenid texts as an indication that they were not considered of any particular importance 6 The German scholar Josef Wiesehofer summarizes the widely held traditional view by noting that Many scholars have read into the text of Cylinder a confirmation of the Old Testament passages about the steps taken by Cyrus towards the erection of the Jerusalem temple and the repatriation of the Judaeans and that this interpretation undergirded a belief that the instructions to this effect were actually provided in these very formulations of the Cyrus Cylinder 29 Human rights Edit The Cylinder gained new prominence in the late 1960s when the last Shah of Iran called it the world s first charter of human rights 102 The cylinder was a key symbol of the Shah s political ideology and is still regarded by some commentators as a charter of human rights despite the disagreement of some historians and scholars 9 Pahlavi Iranian government s view Edit Cyrus Cylinder at the center of the official emblem of 2 500 year celebration of the Persian Empire at Pahlavi Iranian imperial eraThe Cyrus Cylinder was dubbed the first declaration of human rights by the pre Revolution Iranian government 103 a reading prominently advanced by Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in a 1967 book The White Revolution of Iran The Shah identified Cyrus as a key figure in government ideology and associated his government with the Achaemenids 104 He wrote that the history of our empire began with the famous declaration of Cyrus which for its advocacy of humane principles justice and liberty must be considered one of the most remarkable documents in the history of mankind 105 The Shah described Cyrus as the first ruler in history to give his subjects freedom of opinion and other basic rights 105 In 1968 the Shah opened the first United Nations Conference on Human Rights in Tehran by saying that the Cyrus Cylinder was the precursor to the modern Universal Declaration of Human Rights 106 In his 1971 Nowruz New Year speech the Shah declared that 1350 AP 1971 1972 would be Cyrus the Great Year during which a grand commemoration would be held to celebrate 2 500 years of Persian monarchy It would serve as a showcase for a modern Iran in which the contributions that Iran had made to world civilization would be recognized The main theme of the commemoration was the centrality of the monarchy within Iran s political system associating the Shah of Iran with the famous monarchs of Persia s past and with Cyrus in particular 9 The Shah looked to the Achaemenid period as a moment from the national past that could best serve as a model and a slogan for the imperial society he hoped to create 107 The Cyrus Cylinder was adopted as the symbol for the commemoration and Iranian magazines and journals published numerous articles about ancient Persian history 9 The British Museum loaned the original Cylinder to the Iranian government for the duration of the festivities it was put on display at the Shahyad Monument now the Azadi Tower in Tehran 108 The 2 500 year celebrations commenced on October 12 1971 and culminated a week later with a spectacular parade at the tomb of Cyrus in Pasargadae On October 14 the shah s sister Princess Ashraf Pahlavi presented the United Nations Secretary General U Thant with a replica of the Cylinder The princess asserted that the heritage of Cyrus was the heritage of human understanding tolerance courage compassion and above all human liberty 10 The Secretary General accepted the gift linking the Cylinder with the efforts of the United Nations General Assembly to address the question of Respect for Human Rights in Armed Conflict 10 Since then the replica Cylinder has been kept at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City on the second floor hallway 10 The United Nations continues to promote the cylinder as an ancient declaration of human rights 36 Reception in the Islamic Republic Edit In September 2010 former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad officially opened the Cyrus Cylinder exhibition at the National Museum of Iran After the Pahlavi era it was the second time the cylinder was brought to Iran It was also its longest running exhibition inside the country Ahmadinejad considers the Cyrus Cylinder as the incarnation of human values and a cultural heritage for all humanity and called it the First Charter of Human Rights The British Museum had loaned the Cyrus Cylinder to the National Museum of Iran for four months The Cylinder reads that everyone is entitled to freedom of thought and choice and all individuals should pay respect to one another The historical charter also underscores the necessity of fighting oppression defending the oppressed respecting human dignity and recognizing human rights The Cyrus Cylinder bears testimony to the fact that the Iranian nation has always been the flag bearer of justice devotion and human values throughout history Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during Cyrus Cylinder exhibition at National Museum of Iran Some Iranian politicians such as MP Ali Motahari criticized Ahmadinejad for bringing the Cyrus Cylinder to Iran although Tehran daily Kayhan viewed as an ultra conservative newspaper had opined that the Islamic Republic should never have returned the Cyrus Cylinder to Britain note that the cylinder was not discovered in Iran but in present day Iraq There is an important question Doesn t the cylinder belong to Iran And hasn t the British government stolen ancient artifacts from our country If the answers to these questions are positive then why should we return this stolen historical and valuable work to the thieves Kayhan newspaper during Cyrus Cylinder exhibition in Iran At the time the Curator of the National Museum of Iran Azadeh Ardakani reported approximately 48 000 visitors to the Cylinder exhibition amongst whom over 2000 were foreigners including foreign ambassadors Scholarly views Edit The interpretation of the Cylinder as a charter of human rights has been described by various historians as rather anachronistic and tendentious 11 109 110 111 14 It has been dismissed as a misunderstanding 12 and characterized as political propaganda devised by the Pahlavi regime 97 The German historian Josef Wiesehofer comments that the portrayal of Cyrus as a champion of human rights is as illusory as the image of the humane and enlightened Shah of Persia 104 D Fairchild Ruggles and Helaine Silverman describe the Shah s aim as being to legitimise the Iranian nation and his own regime and to counter the growing influence of Islamic fundamentalism by creating an alternative narrative rooted in the ancient Persian past 112 Writing in the immediate aftermath of the Shah s anniversary commemorations the British Museum s C B F Walker comments that the essential character of the Cyrus Cylinder is not a general declaration of human rights or religious toleration but simply a building inscription in the Babylonian and Assyrian tradition commemorating Cyrus s restoration of the city of Babylon and the worship of Marduk previously neglected by Nabonidus 22 Two professors specialising in the history of the ancient Near East Bill T Arnold and Piotr Michalowski comment Generically it belongs with other foundation deposit inscriptions it is not an edict of any kind nor does it provide any unusual human rights declaration as is sometimes claimed 13 Lloyd Llewellyn Jones of the University of Edinburgh notes that there is nothing in the text that suggests the concept of human rights 110 Neil MacGregor comments Comparison by scholars in the British Museum with other similar texts however showed that rulers in ancient Iraq had been making comparable declarations upon succeeding to the Babylonian throne for two millennia before Cyrus it is one of the museum s tasks to resist the narrowing of the object s meaning and its appropriation to one political agenda 102 He cautions that while the Cylinder is clearly linked with the history of Iran it is in no real sense an Iranian document it is part of a much larger history of the ancient Near East of Mesopotamian kingship and of the Jewish diaspora 102 In a similar vein Qamar Adamjee of the Asian Art Museum describes it as a very traditional kingship document and cautions that it s anachronistic to use 20th century terms to describe events that happened two thousand five hundred years ago 14 Non specialist writers on human rights have supported the interpretation of the Cyrus Cylinder as a human rights charter 113 114 W J Talbott an American philosopher believes the concept of human rights is a 20th century concept but describes Cyrus as perhaps the earliest known advocate of religious tolerance and suggests that ideas that led to the development of human rights are not limited to one cultural tradition 115 The Iranian lawyer Hirad Abtahi argues that viewing the Cylinder as merely an instrument of legitimizing royal rule is unjustified as Cyrus issued the document and granted those rights when he was at the height of his power with neither popular opposition nor visible external threat to force his hand 116 Exhibition history Edit The Cyrus Cylinder in Room 52 of the British Museum in LondonThe Cyrus Cylinder has been displayed in the British Museum since its formal acquisition in 1880 1 It has been loaned four times twice to Iran between 7 22 October 1971 in conjunction with the 2 500 year celebration of the Persian Empire and again from September December 2010 once to Spain from March June 2006 1 and once to the United States in a traveling exhibition from March October 2013 Many replicas have been made Some were distributed by the Shah following the 1971 commemorations while the British Museum and National Museum of Iran have sold them commercially 1 The British Museum s ownership of the Cyrus Cylinder has been the cause of some controversy in Iran although the artifact was obtained legally and was not excavated on Iranian soil but on former Ottoman territory modern Iraq When it was loaned in 1971 the Iranian press campaigned for its transfer to Iranian ownership The Cylinder was brought back to London without difficulty but the British Museum s Board of Trustees subsequently decided that it would be undesirable to make a further loan of the Cylinder to Iran 1 In 2005 2006 the British Museum mounted a major exhibition on the Persian Empire Forgotten Empire the World of Ancient Persia It was held in collaboration with the Iranian government which loaned the British Museum a number of iconic artefacts in exchange for an undertaking that the Cyrus Cylinder would be loaned to the National Museum of Iran in return 117 The planned loan of the Cylinder was postponed in October 2009 following the June 2009 Iranian presidential election so that the British Museum could be assured that the situation in the country was suitable 118 In response the Iranian government threatened to end cooperation with the British Museum if the Cylinder was not loaned within the following two months 118 119 This deadline was postponed despite appeals by the Iranian government 118 120 but the Cylinder did eventually go on display in Tehran in September 2010 for a four month period 121 The exhibition was very popular attracting 48 000 people within the first ten days and about 500 000 people by the time it closed in January 2011 122 123 However at its opening Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad mingled Islamic Republican and ancient Persian symbology which commentators inside and outside Iran criticised as an overt appeal to religious nationalism 124 On November 28 2012 the BBC announced the first United States tour of the Cylinder Under the headline British Museum lends ancient bill of rights cylinder to US Museum director Neil MacGregor declared that The cylinder often referred to as the first bill of human rights must be shared as widely as possible 125 The British Museum itself announced the news in its press release saying First declaration of human rights to tour five cities in the United States 126 According to the British Museum s website for the Cylinder s US exhibition CyrusCylinder2013 com the tour started in March 2013 and included Washington DC s Smithsonian s Arthur M Sackler Gallery the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and culminated at the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles in October 2013 127 The cylinder along with thirty two other associated objects from the British Museum collection including a pair of gold armlets from the Oxus Treasure and the Darius Seal were part of an exhibition titled The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia A New Beginning at the Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai India from December 21 2013 to February 25 2014 It was organised by the British Museum and the Prince of Wales Museum in partnership with Sir Dorabji Tata Trust Sir Ratan Tata Trust and Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust all set up by luminaries from the Parsi community who are descendants of Persian Zoroastrians who hold Cyrus in great regard as many scholars consider him as a follower of Zoroastrianism 128 The Freedom Sculpture EditMain article Freedom Sculpture The Freedom Sculpture or Freedom A Shared Dream Persian تندیس آزادی is a 2017 stainless steel public art sculpture by artist and architect Cecil Balmond located in Century City California and modeled on the Cyrus Cylinder 129 130 131 See also EditBehistun inscriptions Persepolis Fortification Archive Cyrus s edictNotes and references Edit a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o The Cyrus Cylinder British Museum database Retrieved 19 June 2010 a b Dandamayev 2010 01 26 a b c d e Kuhrt 2007 p 70 72 a b c British Museum The Cyrus Cylinder Free amp Vos 1992 p 204 a b c Becking p 8 a b Janzen p 157 Barbara Slavin 6 March 2013 Cyrus Cylinder a Reminder of Persian Legacy of Tolerance Al Monitor Retrieved 21 September 2013 a b c d Ansari pp 218 19 a b c d United Nations Press Release 14 October 1971 SG SM 1553 HQ263 Archived 2017 08 07 at the Wayback Machine a b Daniel p 39 a b Mitchell p 83 a b c Arnold pp 426 30 a b c Oldest Known Charter of Human Rights Comes to San Francisco 13 August 2013 Archived from the original on 22 September 2013 Retrieved 21 September 2013 Finkel 2009 p 172 a b c Vos 1995 p 267 a b c Hilprecht 1903 pp 204 05 Rassam 1897 p 223 Koldewey p vi Rassam p 267 Hilprecht 1903 p 264 a b c Walker pp 158 59 The Times 18 November 1879 The Oriental Journal January 1880 Rawlinson 1880 pp 70 97 Curtis Tallis amp Andre Salvini p 59 Nies amp Keiser 1920 a b Berger pp 155 59 a b Wiesehofer 2001 pp 44 45 a b c d Translation of the text on the Cyrus Cylinder Archived 2017 04 06 at the Wayback Machine Finkel Irving a b c Pritchard a b Kutsko p 123 Weissbach p 2 Schaudig pp 550 56 Hallo p 315 a b c d Schulz 2008 07 15 compare Cyrus Cylinder Archived from the original on 2013 06 15 Retrieved 2013 04 12 with the British Museum translation at 1 Archived 2015 10 18 at the Wayback Machine Foucart 2007 08 19 Shirin Ebadi s 2003 Nobel Peace Prize lecture Nobel Foundation Retrieved 2011 03 19 British Museum Irving Finkel Retrieved 14 December 2010 Cyrus Cylinder press release Archived 2011 09 22 at the Wayback Machine British Museum 20 January 2010 Yang Zhi 1987 Brief Note on the Bone Cuneiform Inscriptions Journal of Ancient Civilizations 2 30 33 a b c Finkel Irving ed 2013 The Cyrus Cylinder The King of Persia s Proclamation from Ancient Babylon I B Tauris pp 28 34 ISBN 978 1780760636 Wu Yuhong 1986 A Horse Bone Inscription copied from the Cyrus Cylinder Line 18 21 in the Palace Museum in Beijing Journal of Ancient Civilizations 1 15 20 Inscription in the British Museum Room 55 a b c Kuhrt 1982 p 124 a b Winn Leith p 285 a b Fowler amp Hekster p 33 British Museum The Cyrus Cylinder Kuhrt 1983 pp 83 97 Dandamaev pp 52 53 Beaulieu p 243 van der Spek pp 273 85 Wiesehofer 2001 p 82 Briant p 43 Haubold p 52 fn 24 British Museum e mail 2010 01 11 British Museum statement 2010 01 20 a b c Kuhrt 2007 pp 174 75 Dyck pp 91 94 Grabbe 2004 p 267 Dick p 10 Smith p 78 Sherwin p 122 a b c Haubold p 51 Haubold p 52 Bidmead p 137 Bidmead p 134 Bidmead p 135 a b Mallowan pp 409 11 For the text see J B Pritchard ed Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament 3rd ed Princeton Princeton Univ Press 1969 562a 563b Beaulieu Paul Alain 1989 The Reign of Nabonidus King of Babylon 556 539 B C PDF New Haven and London Yale University Press p 17 ISBN 0300043147 Pritchard ed Ancient Near Eastern Texts 313b This cuneiform text is called the Verse Account of Nabonidus Beaulieu Reign of Nabonidus 32 Cyropaedia 4 6 3 5 2 27 5 4 12 24 26 33 7 5 29 The Cyropaedia refers to Belshazzar as this young fellow who has just come to the throne His death is described as occurring on the night the city was captured which was also the time of a festival 7 5 25 in agreement with the narration of these events in the book of Daniel 5 1 30 Briant p 43 Buchanan pp 12 13 Fried p 30 Oppenheim A Leo in Pritchard James B Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament Princeton University Press 1950 Briant p 41 Fried p 29 Walton amp Hill p 172 Lincoln p 40 Masroori pp 13 15 Dandamaev pp 52 53 Brown pp 7 8 Arberry p 8 Stillman p 225 Min p 94 Evans pp 12 13 Albertz pp 115 16 Soggin p 295 Razmjou pp 104 125 a b Razmjou p 122 John Curtis The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia A New Beginning For the Middle East pp 31 41 ISBN 978 0714111872 a b Razmjou p 123 Hurowitz pp 581 91 Some translations give Nineveh The relevant passage is fragmentary but Finkel has recently concluded that it is impossible to interpret it as Nineveh I Finkel No Nineveh in the Cyrus Cylinder in NABU 1997 23 Lendering Jona 5 February 2010 Cyrus Cylinder 2 Livius org Archived from the original on 11 March 2018 Retrieved 10 January 2007 Text adapted from Schaudig 2001 English translation adapted from Cogan s translation in Hallo amp Younger 2003 Dandamaev 2010 01 26 Bedford p 113 Bedford p 134 a b Kuhrt 1983 pp 83 97 Grabbe 2006 p 542 Bedford pp 138 39 Greaves Alan M Miletos A History p 84 Routledge 2002 ISBN 978 0415238465 Bedford p 137 a b c MacGregor United Nations Note to Correspondents no 3699 13 October 1971 PDF a b Wiesehofer 1999 pp 55 68 a b Pahlavi p 9 Robertson p 7 Lincoln p 32 Housego 1971 10 15 Briant p 47 a b Llewellyn Jones p 104 Curtis Tallis amp Andre Salvini p 59 Silverman Helaine Ruggles D Fairchild 2008 Cultural Heritage and Human Rights Springer p 11 ISBN 978 0387765792 Damien Kingsbury Human Rights in Asia A Reassessment of the Asian Values Debate Macmillan 2008 p 21 Sabine C Carey The Politics of Human Rights The Quest for Dignity 2010 p 19 Paul Gordon Lauren The Evolution of International Human Rights 2003 p 11 Willem Adriaan Veenhoven Case Studies on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms A World Survey Volume 1 1975 p 244 Decolonisation Globalisation Language in Education Policy and Practice Peter W Martin p 99 Talbott W J Which Rights Should be Universal p 40 Oxford University Press US 2005 ISBN 978 0195173475 Abtahi pp 1 38 Jeffries 2005 10 22 a b c Sheikholeslami 2009 10 12 Wilson 2010 01 24 Iran severs cultural ties with British Museum over Persian treasure 2010 02 07 Cyrus Cylinder world s oldest human rights charter returns to Iran on loan The Guardian 2010 09 10 Cyrus Cylinder warmly welcomed at home Archived 2011 06 14 at the Wayback Machine Tehran Times September 26 2010 Diplomatic whirl The Economist 2013 03 23 ISSN 0013 0613 Retrieved 2019 07 30 Esfandiari Golnaz Historic Cyrus Cylinder Called A Stranger In Its Own Home Archived 2010 09 18 at the Wayback Machine Persian Letters Radio Free Europe September 14 2010 Babylonian artefact to tour US 2012 11 28 Retrieved 2019 07 30 The Cyrus Cylinder travels to the US British Museum Retrieved 2019 07 30 Tour Venues and Dates Cyrus Cylinder US Tour 2013 2013 02 28 Retrieved 2019 07 30 The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia A New Beginning an exhibition in partnership with three Tata trusts Tata Sons Tata group Archived from the original on 2015 05 13 Retrieved 2014 06 18 Anderton Frances 4 July 2017 Cecil Balmond Designs Freedom Sculpture for Los Angeles KCRW Retrieved 21 November 2020 Century City Freedom Sculpture unveiled on Santa Monica Boulevard median 2017 07 05 Los Angeles embodies diversity the city s new sculpture celebrating freedom is unveiled Los Angeles Times 5 July 2017 Further reading EditBooks and journals Edit Abtahi Hirad 2006 Abtahi Hirad Boas Gideon eds The Dynamics of International Criminal Justice Essays in Honour of Sir Richard May Leiden Martinus Nijhoff Publishers ISBN 978 9004145870 Albertz Rainer 2003 Israel in Exile The History and Literature of the Sixth Century B C E Atlanta Society of Biblical Literature ISBN 978 1589830554 Ansari Ali 2007 Modern Iran The Pahlavis and After Harlow Longman ISBN 978 1405840842 Arberry A J 1953 The Legacy of Persia Oxford Clarendon Press ISBN 978 0 19 821905 7 OCLC 1283292 Arnold Bill T Michalowski Piotr 2006 Achaemenid Period Historical Texts Concerning Mesopotamia In Chavelas Mark W ed The Ancient Near East Historical Sources in Translation London Blackwell ISBN 978 0631235811 Bedford Peter Ross 2000 Temple Restoration in Early Achaemenid Judah Leiden Brill ISBN 978 9004115095 Beaulieu P A Oct 1993 An Episode in the Fall of Babylon to the Persians Journal of Near Eastern Studies 52 4 241 61 doi 10 1086 373633 S2CID 162399298 Becking Bob 2006 We All Returned as One Critical Notes on the Myth of the Mass Return In Lipschitz Oded Oeming Manfred eds Judah and the Judeans in the Persian period Winona Lake IN Eisenbrauns ISBN 978 1575061047 Berger P R 1970 Das Neujahrsfest nach den Konigsinschriften des ausgehenden babylonischen Reiches In Finet A ed Actes de la XVIIe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale Publications du Comite belge de recherches historiques epigraphiques et archeologiques en Mesopotamie nr 1 in German Ham sur Heure Comite belge de recherches en Mesopotamie Bidmead Julye 2004 The Akitu Festival Religious Continuity And Royal Legitimation In Mesopotamia Piscataway NJ Gorgias Press LLC ISBN 978 1593331580 Briant Pierre 2006 From Cyrus to Alexander A History of the Persian Empire Winona Lake IN Eisenbraun ISBN 978 1575061207 Brown Dale 1996 Persians Masters of Empire Alexandra VA Time Life Books ISBN 978 0809491049 Buchanan G 1964 The Foundation and Extension of the Persian Empire In Bury J B Cook S A Adcock F E eds The Cambridge Ancient History IV The Persian Empire and the West Cambridge Cambridge University Press OCLC 57550495 Curtis John Tallis Nigel Andre Salvini Beatrice 2005 Forgotten Empire The World of Ancient Persia Berkeley University of California Press ISBN 978 0520247314 Dandamaev M A 1989 A political history of the Achaemenid Empire Leiden Brill ISBN 978 9004091726 Daniel Elton L 2000 The History of Iran Westport CT Greenwood Publishing Group ISBN 978 0313307317 Dick Michael B 2004 The History of David s Rise to Power and the Neo Babylonian Succession Apologies In Batto Bernard Frank Roberts Kathryn L McBee Roberts Jimmy Jack eds David and Zion Biblical Studies in Honor of J J M Roberts Winona Lake IN Eisenbrauns ISBN 978 1575060927 Dyck Jonathan E 1998 The Theocratic Ideology of the Chronicler Leiden Brill ISBN 978 9004111462 Evans Malcolm 1997 Religious Liberty and International Law in Europe Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0521550215 Finkel I L Seymour M J 2009 Babylon Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0195385403 Fowler Richard Hekster Olivier 2005 Imaginary kings royal images in the ancient Near East Greece and Rome Stuttgart Franz Steiner Verlag ISBN 978 3515087650 Free Joseph P Vos Howard Frederic 1992 Vos Howard Frederic ed Archaeology and Bible history Grand Rapids MI Zondervan ISBN 978 0310479611 Fried Lisbeth S 2004 The priest and the great king temple palace relations in the Persian Empire Winona Lake IN Eisenbrauns ISBN 978 1575060903 Grabbe Lester L 2004 A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period Yehud the Persian Province of Judah London Continuum International Publishing Group ISBN 978 0567089984 Grabbe Lester L 2006 The Persian Documents in the Book of Ezra Are They Authentic In Lipschitz Oded Oeming Manfred eds Judah and the Judeans in the Persian period Winona Lake IN Eisenbrauns ISBN 978 1575061047 Hallo William 2002 Hallo William Younger K Lawson eds The Context of Scripture Monumental inscriptions from the biblical world Vol 2 Leiden Brill ISBN 978 9004106192 Haubold Johannes 2007 Xerxes Homer In Bridges Emma Hall Edith Rhodes P J eds Cultural Responses to the Persian Wars Antiquity to the Third Millennium Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0199279678 Hilprecht Hermann Volrath 1903 Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century Philadelphia A J Molman and Company Hurowitz Victor Avigdor Jan Apr 2003 Restoring the Temple Why and when The Jewish Quarterly Review 93 3 4 Janzen David 2002 Witch hunts purity and social boundaries the expulsion of the foreign women in Ezra 9 10 London Sheffield Academic Press ISBN 978 1841272924 Koldewey Robert Griffith Johns Agnes Sophia 1914 The excavations at Babylon London MacMillan amp co Kuhrt Amelie 1982 Babylonia from Cyrus to Xerxes In Boardman John ed The Cambridge Ancient History Vol IV Persia Greece and the Western Mediterranean Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0521228046 Kuhrt Amelie 1983 The Cyrus Cylinder and Achaemenid imperial policy Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 25 ISSN 1476 6728 Kuhrt Amelie 2007 The Persian Empire A Corpus of Sources of the Achaemenid Period London Routledge ISBN 978 0415436281 Kuhrt Amelie 2007 Cyrus the Great of Persia Images and Realities In Heinz Marlies Feldman Marian H eds Representations of Political Power Case Histories from Times of Change and Dissolving Order in the Ancient Near East Winona Lake IN Eisenbrauns ISBN 978 1575061351 Kutsko John F 2000 Between Heaven and Earth Divine Presence and Absence in the Book of Ezekiel Winona Lake IN Eisenbrauns ISBN 978 1575060415 Lincoln Bruce 1992 Discourse and the Construction of Society Comparative Studies of Myth Ritual and Classification New York Oxford University Press US ISBN 978 0195079098 Lincoln Bruce 2007 Religion empire and torture the case of Achaemenian Persia with a postscript on Abu Ghraib Chicago University of Chicago Press ISBN 978 0226481968 Llewellyn Jones Lloyd 2009 The First Persian Empire 550 330 BC In Harrison Thomas ed The Great Empires of the Ancient World Getty Publications p 104 ISBN 978 0892369874 Mallowan Max 1968 Cyrus the Great 558 529 B C In Frye Richard Nelson Fisher William Bayne eds The Cambridge History of Iran Vol 2 The Median and Achaemenian periods Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 20091 2 OCLC 40820893 Masroori C 1999 Cyrus II and the Political Utility of Religious Toleration In Laursen J C ed Religious Toleration The Variety of Rites from Cyrus to Defoe New York St Martin s Press ISBN 978 0312222338 Min Kyung Jin 2004 The Levitical Authorship of Ezra Nehemiah London Continuum International Publishing Group ISBN 978 0567082268 Mitchell T C 1988 Biblical Archaeology Documents from the British Museum London Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0521368674 Nies J B Keiser C E 1920 Babylonian Inscriptions in the Collection of J B Nies Vol II Pahlavi Mohammed Reza 1967 The White Revolution of Iran Imperial Pahlavi Library Pritchard James Bennett ed 1973 The Ancient Near East Volume I An Anthology of Texts and Pictures Princeton Princeton University Press OCLC 150577756 Razmjou Shahrokh 2013 The Cyrus Cylinder A Persian Perspective In Finkel Irving ed The Cyrus Cylinder The King of Persia s Proclamation from Ancient Babylon London published by I B Tauris amp Co Ltd pp 104 125 ISBN 978 1 78076 063 6 Rassam Hormuzd 1897 Asshur and the land of Nimrod London Curts amp Jennings Rawlinson H C 1880 Notes on a newly discovered clay Cylinder of Cyrus the Great Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 12 Robertson Arthur Henry Merrills J G 1996 Human rights in the world an introduction to the study of the international protection of human rights Manchester Manchester University Press ISBN 978 0719049231 Schaudig Hanspeter 2001 Die Inschriften Nabonids von Babylon und Kyros des Grossen samt den in ihrem Umfeld entstandenen Tendenzschriften Textausgabe und Grammatik in German Munster Ugarit Verlag ISBN 978 3927120754 Shabani Reza 2005 Iranian History at a Glance Mahmood Farrokhpey trans London Alhoda UK ISBN 978 9644390050 Sherwin Simon J 2007 Old Testament monotheism and Zoroastrian influence In Gordon Robert P ed The God of Israel Studies of an Inimitable Deity Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0521873659 Smith Morton 1996 Cohen Shaye J D ed Studies in the cult of Yahweh Volume 1 Leiden Brill p 78 ISBN 978 9004104778 Soggin J Alberto 1999 An Introduction to the History of Israel and Judah John Bowman trans London SCM Canterbury Press Ltd ISBN 978 0334027881 Stillman Robert E 2008 Philip Sidney and the poetics of Renaissance cosmopolitanism Aldershot Ashgate Publishing ISBN 978 0754663690 van der Spek R J 1982 Did Cyrus the Great introduce a new policy towards subdued nations Cyrus in Assyrian perspective Persica 10 OCLC 499757419 Vos Howard Frederic 1995 Archaeology of Mesopotamia In Bromiley Geoffrey W ed The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Grand Rapids Mich Wm B Eerdmans Publishing ISBN 978 0802837813 Walker C B F 1972 A recently identified fragment of the Cyrus Cylinder Iran Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies 10 10 158 159 doi 10 2307 4300475 ISSN 0578 6967 JSTOR 4300475 Walton John H Hill Andrew E 2004 Old Testament Today A Journey from Original Meaning to Contemporary Significance Grand Rapids MI Zondervan ISBN 978 0310238263 Wiesehofer Josef 1999 Kyros der Schah und 2500 Jahre Menschenrechte Historische Mythenbildung zur Zeit der Pahlavi Dynastie In Conermann Stephan ed Mythen Geschichte n Identitaten Der Kampf um die Vergangenheit in German Schenefeld Hamburg EB Verlag ISBN 978 3930826520 Wiesehofer Josef 2001 Ancient Persia From 550 BC to 650 AD London I B Tauris ISBN 978 1860646751 Weissbach Franz Heinrich 1911 Die Keilinschriften der Achameniden Vorderasiatische Bibliotek in German Leipzig J C Hinrichs Winn Leith Mary Joan 1998 Israel among the Nations The Persian Period In Coogan Michael David ed The Oxford History of the Biblical World Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0195139372 Farrokh Kaveh 2007 Cyrus the Great and early Achaemenids Shadows in the Desert Ancient Persia at War Oxford Osprey Publishing ISBN 978 1846031083 Lauren Paul Gordon 2003 Philosophical Visions Human Nature Natural Law and Natural Rights The Evolution of International Human Rights Visions Seen Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press ISBN 978 0812218541 Media articles Edit Royal Asiatic Society The Times 18 November 1879 A Monument of Cyrus the Great The Oriental Journal London January 1880 Housego David 1971 10 15 Pique and peacocks in Persepolis The Times Foucart Stephane 2007 08 19 Cyrus le taiseux Le Monde in French Archived from the original on 2013 01 07 Retrieved 2008 07 30 Jeffries Stuart 2005 10 22 A private view The Guardian London Retrieved 2010 06 19 MacGregor Neil 2004 07 24 The whole world in our hands The Guardian London Retrieved 2010 06 26 Schulz Matthias 15 July 2008 Falling for Ancient Propaganda UN Treasure Honors Persian Despot Spiegel Online Retrieved 25 November 2015 Sheikholeslami Ali 2009 10 12 Iran Gives British Museum 2 Month Deadline Over Cyrus Cylinder Bloomberg News Retrieved 2010 06 19 Wilson John 2010 01 24 British Museum in battle with Iran over ancient charter of rights The Observer London Retrieved 2010 06 24 Staff 2010 02 07 Iran severs cultural ties with British Museum over Persian treasure Daily Telegraph London Retrieved 2010 06 20 Iran seeks compensation from British Museum Tehran Times 2010 04 18 Iran demands 300 000 from British Museum over Cyrus Cylinder delay The Times London 2010 04 20 Iran is demanding that the British Museum pay 300 000 197 000 after it refused to hand over the Cyrus Cylinder a cuneiform tablet regarded as the first declaration of human rights Cyrus Cylinder world s oldest human rights charter returns to Iran on loan The Guardian London 2010 09 10 Retrieved 2010 09 10 موزه بريتانيا تبادل اشياء تاريخي با موزه ملي ايران براي ما مهم است British Museum Exchange of historical objects with the National Museum of Iran is important to us IRNA 2010 09 10 Archived from the original on 2011 09 27 Retrieved 2010 09 10 منشور حقوق بشر كوروش در موزه ملي ايران استقرار يافت The Human Rights Declaration of Cyrus was Installed at National Museum IRNA 2010 09 11 Archived from the original on 2012 03 16 Retrieved 2010 09 11 Other sources Edit Highlights the Cyrus Cylinder British Museum Archived from the original on 2012 03 21 The Cyrus Cylinder British Museum Archived from the original on 2008 09 03 Nayeri F 2010 01 11 British Museum Postpones Sending Artifact to Iran Bloomberg Retrieved 2010 06 25 The agreement has been made with our colleagues in Iran that we ll postpone the loan to investigate this exciting discovery with them said Hannah Boulton head of press and marketing at the British Museum That s the reason for the postponement Boulton said the latest postponement had no link to recent events The Cyrus Cylinder Inscription in room 55 British Museum For almost 100 years the Cylinder was regarded as ancient Mesopotamian propaganda This changed in 1971 when the Shah of Iran used it as a central image in his own propaganda celebrating 2500 years of Iranian monarchy In Iran the Cylinder has appeared on coins banknotes and stamps Despite being a Babylonian document it has become part of Iran s cultural identity a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location link The British Museum 2010 01 20 Statements regarding the Cyrus Cylinder British Museum Retrieved 2010 06 01 Note to Correspondents no 3699 PDF United Nations 1971 10 13 Retrieved 2010 06 08 Lendering Jona 2007 01 28 The Cyrus Cylinder livius org Archived from the original on 2017 07 22 Retrieved 2008 07 30 Dandamaev M A 2010 01 26 Cyrus II The Great Encyclopaedia Iranica Retrieved 2010 06 08 Dandamaev M A 2010 01 26 The Cyrus Cylinder Encyclopaedia Iranica Retrieved 2010 09 13 United Nations Press Release SG SM 1553 HQ263 PDF 1971 10 14 Retrieved 2010 06 08 Gift of Iran to the United Nations United Nations August 1985 Retrieved 2010 06 10 The First Global Statement of the Inherent Dignity and Equality United Nations Archived from the original on 2010 12 16 Retrieved 2010 09 13 Editions and translations Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cyrus cylinder Rawlinson H C amp Th G Pinches A Selection from the Miscellaneous Inscriptions of Assyria and Babylonia 1884 1909 London fragment A only Rogers Robert William Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament 1912 New York Eaton amp Mains Online Archived 2006 08 13 at the Wayback Machine fragment A only Pritchard James B ed Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament ANET 1950 1955 1969 Translation by A L Oppenheim fragment A and B P R Berger Der Kyros Zylinder mit dem Zusatzfragment BIN II Nr 32 und die akkidischen Personennamen im Danielbuch in Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie 65 1975 192 234 Hallo W H Younger K L eds 2003 The Context of Scripture Monumental Inscriptions from the Biblical World Translated by Cogan Mordechai Leiden Brill ISBN 978 9004106192 Brosius Maria ed The Persian Empire from Cyrus II to Artaxerxes I 2000 London Association of Classical Teachers LACT 16 London Schaudig Hanspeter 2001 Die Inschriften Nabonids von Babylon und Kyros des Grossen samt den in ihrem Umfeld entstandenen Tendenzschriften Textausgabe und Grammatik in German Munster Ugarit Verlag Michalowski P 2007 The Cyrus Cylinder In Chavalas Mark W ed Ancient Near East Historical Sources in Translation Blackwell Sourcebooks in Ancient History Wiley pp 426 30 ISBN 978 0631235811 Lendering Jona 5 February 2010 Cyrus Cylinder 2 Livius org Archived from the original on 11 March 2018 Retrieved 10 January 2007 Text adapted from Schaudig 2001 English translation adapted from Cogan s translation in Hallo amp Younger 2003 Translation of the text on the Cyrus Cylinder Translated by Finkel Irving British Museum 2012 Archived from the original on 21 December 2012 Retrieved 12 April 2013 Finkel Irving 2013 The Cyrus Cylinder The Babylonian perspective The Cyrus Cylinder The King of Persia s Proclamation from Ancient Babylon I B Tauris pp 4ff ISBN 978 1780760636 Cyrus Cylinder in Persian PDF in Persian Translated by Razmjou Shahrokh 2013 2010 Retrieved 1 October 2018 Earlier version Archived 2012 08 16 at the Wayback Machine dated to 13 September 2010 External links EditBritish Museum description including translation by Irving Finkel Neil MacGregor Director of the British Museum traces 2600 years of Middle Eastern history through this single object The Cyrus Cylinder at World History Encyclopedia High resolution photographs from Livius orgThis article is about an item held in the British Museum The object reference is 1880 0617 1941 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cyrus Cylinder amp oldid 1161959131, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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