Cyrus Cylinder

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Lore & Background

The Cyrus Cylinder was discovered in March 1879 by the Assyro-British archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam during a lengthy programme of excavations in Mesopotamia carried out for the British Museum. It had been placed as a foundation deposit in the foundations of the Ésagila, the city's main temple. 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. 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. The Cylinder is a barrel-shaped cylinder of baked clay measuring 22.5 centimetres by 10 centimetres at its maximum diameter. It was created in several stages around a cone-shaped core of clay within which there are large grey stone inclusions. It was excavated in several fragments, having apparently broken apart in antiquity. Today it exists in two main fragments, known as 'A' and 'B', which were reunited in 1972. The smaller fragment, 'B', was acquired by J.B. Nies of Yale University from an antiquities dealer and was not confirmed as part of the Cylinder until Paul-Richard Berger of the University of Münster definitively identified it in 1970.

Reader's Guide

The Cyrus Cylinder's text 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. 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 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. 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, as the text refers to the restoration of cult sanctuaries and repatriation of deported peoples. This interpretation has been disputed, as the text identifies only Mesopotamian sanctuaries, and makes no mention of Jews, Jerusalem, or Judea. 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. Princess Ashraf Pahlavi presented United Nations Secretary General U Thant with a replica of the Cylinder. Her brother, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, promoted the Cylinder as the 'first charter of human rights', though this interpretation has been described by most historians as 'rather anachronistic' and controversial.

Did You Know?

• The Cyrus Cylinder was discovered in March 1879 by Hormuzd Rassam during excavations for the British Museum.
• It was placed as a foundation deposit in the foundations of the Ésagila, Babylon's main temple.
• The Cylinder exists in two main fragments, 'A' and 'B', which were reunited in 1972.
• Fragment 'B' was acquired by J.B. Nies of Yale University and identified as part of the Cylinder by Paul-Richard Berger in 1970.
• The text consists of 45 lines of Akkadian cuneiform script, with the first 35 lines on fragment 'A'.