Cyrus Cylinder – First Charter of Human Rights?

Dispute Over Writings of King Cyrus Threatens Future Co-operation

Oct 18, 2009

The BBC has recently reported that Iran has threatened to stop cultural co-operation with the British Museum if the Babylonian Cyrus Cylinder is not returned on loan.

Although the British Museum has hesitated to lend the Cyrus Cylinder, one of its most precious treasures, a Museum spokesperson has, “ reaffirmed their intention to lend the Cylinder to Iran” at an appropriate time.

The current stalemate is seen by some in Iran as procrastination by the Museum because of the country’s post-election situation. The Fars News Agency has reported Hamid Baqaei, vice president responsible for Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organisation (ICHTO) as saying, “If the British Museum continues to make excuses for not loaning the artefact to the National Museum, we will, unfortunately, cease any co-operation with them, including archaeological expeditions and research.”

As the war of word between Tehran and London continues, the focus of the increasingly acrimonious dispute remains a mystery to many people. So what is the Cyrus Cylinder and why is it so important to historians?

King Cyrus

The clay Cylinder is a cuneiform record of the capture in 539 BCE of Nabonidus, the last Babylonian king and the conquest of his empire by Persian king Cyrus (559-530 BCE). According to the script Cyrus’s victory would not have been achieved without the help of the Marduk, the god of Babylon.

First Charter of Human Rights

The Cylinder was discovered in 1879, buried in the foundations of the city (Babylon) wall and is sometimes, described as the first charter of human rights.

The inscriptions on the Cyrus Cylinder refer to a, "just and peaceful rule and to the restoration of banished peoples." However Persian experts at the British Museum have poured cold water on the notion of the writings as an early charter of human rights. They say that such a concept was “Alien to Cyrus and his contemporaries.” They do concede however that the, “Return of the Jews and other deported people showed that he was more tolerant than other Babylonian and Assyrian kings.”

Chapter one of the Old Testament book of Ezra describes the role of Cyrus in the return of some of the Jewish exiles to Jerusalem and their right of worship. Early historian Josephus also chronicles the story of Cyrus and the return of the Jews in, Antiquities of the Jews Book XI. Both these accounts, in the eyes of some historians add legitimacy to the text on the Cyrus Cylinder.

Legacy of Cyrus the Great

There is much that has already been said of King Cyrus but Professor Emeritus Richard Nelson Frye of Harvard University sums it up nicely. He said, “Surely the concept of one world, the fusion of peoples and cultures into oneness was one of his important legacies.”

A replica of the Cyrus Cylinder can be seen at the House of Iran in Balboa Park San Diego

Sources:

BBC website (author not named), Iranians Demand Loan of Treasure, 12 October 2009, website accessed 18 October 2009

Fars News Agency (author not named), Iran Warns British Museum over Cyrus Cylinder, website accessed 18 October 2009

The copyright of the article Cyrus Cylinder – First Charter of Human Rights? in Ancient Middle Eastern History is owned by Neil Gunn. Permission to republish Cyrus Cylinder – First Charter of Human Rights? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.