Cyrus Cylinder

A clay cylinder inscribed with a Babylonian account of Cyrus the Great’s conquest of Babylon and restoration of temples and cult images. Its royal inscription presents Cyrus as a legitimate ruler chosen by the Babylonian god Marduk.

Cyrus the Great: The founder of the Achaemenid Empire, who conquered Babylon in 539 BCE. The cylinder presents Cyrus as Babylon’s conqueror and legitimate new king.
Cuneiform: A writing system used in ancient Mesopotamia, formed from wedge-shaped marks pressed into clay. Scribes used cuneiform signs to inscribe the cylinder’s text.
Human rights: Basic rights and freedoms understood as belonging to every person. Modern claims that the cylinder is an early rights charter invite comparison with this idea.
Hormuzd Rassam: An Assyrian-British archaeologist who excavated ancient Mesopotamian sites for the British Museum. His 1879 excavation at Babylon uncovered the cylinder.
Fall of Babylon: The Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE, which ended the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The inscription describes the political change that brought Cyrus to Babylon.
Babylonian royal inscriptions: Texts commissioned by Babylonian rulers to record deeds and express political and religious authority. The cylinder follows this genre’s conventions for presenting a ruler’s legitimacy.
Cyrus Cylinder as a human rights charter: A modern interpretation that presents the Cyrus Cylinder as an early declaration of human rights. The inscription concerns royal power and cult restoration, not universal individual rights.
Babylon: An ancient Mesopotamian city on the Euphrates, famed as the capital of the Babylonian empires. The cylinder was found at Babylon and describes Cyrus’s rule there.
Neo-Babylonian Empire: An ancient Mesopotamian empire ruled from Babylon from 626 to 539 BCE. The cylinder addresses the Babylonian kingdom Cyrus conquered.
Marduk Prophecy: A Babylonian text portraying Marduk’s travels and the fortunes of cities under successive rulers. It offers a related Babylonian account of divine approval and political change.

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