The British Museum, Iran, and the Cyrus Cylinder

An article published in The Guardian describes the controversy between the British Museum and Iran over the status of the Cyrus Cylinder. The following is an excerpt from the article:

The discovery of fragments of ancient cuneiform tablets – hidden in a British Museum storeroom since 1881 – has sparked a diplomatic row between the UK and Iran. In dispute is a proposed loan of the Cyrus cylinder, one of the most important objects in the museum's collection, and regarded by some historians as the world's first human rights charter.

The Iranian government has threatened to "sever all cultural relations" with Britain unless the artefact is sent to Tehran immediately. Museum director Neil MacGregor has been accused by an Iranian vice-president of "wasting time" and "making excuses" not to make the loan of the 2,500-year-old clay object, as was agreed last year.

The museum says that two newly discovered clay fragments hold the key to an important new understanding of the cylinder and need to be studied in London for at least six months.

The pieces of clay, inscribed in the world's oldest written language, look like "nothing more than dog biscuits", says MacGregor. Since being discovered at the end of last year, they have revealed verbatim copies of the proclamation made by Persian king Cyrus the Great, as recorded on the cylinder. The artefact itself was broken when it was excavated from the remains of Babylon in 1879. Curators say the new fragments are the missing pieces of an ancient jigsaw puzzle.

Irving Finkel, curator in the museum's ancient near east department, said he "nearly had a coronary" when he realised what he had in his hands. "We always thought the Cyrus cylinder was unique," he said. "No one had even imagined that copies of the text might have been made, let alone that bits of it have been here all along."

Finkel must now trawl through 130,000 objects, housed in hundreds of floor-to ceiling shelving units. His task is to locate other fragments inscribed with Cyrus's words. The aim is to complete the missing sections of one of history's most important political documents.

Read the story in its entirety by visiting The Guardian online.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Cyrus, Cyrus Cylinder, Irving Finkel

New Cyrus Cylinder Pieces Found in the British Museum

Image: The Cyrus Cylinder




The Cyrus Cylinder contains the decree Cyrus the Great issued after he conquered Babylon in 539 B.C. restoring the proper worship of Marduk in Babylon and allowing the return of the captive gods to their own countries. Cyrus’ decree also allowed the exiled people in Babylon to return to their native lands. The Cyrus the Great cylinder is inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform and is considered by some to be the world’s first charter of human rights.

The Cyrus Cylinder is partially broken, but the British Museum has announced that several new fragments of the Cyrus Cylinder have been found in their archives. The following is an excerpt from a news release announcing the discovery:

Iranian inscription expert Abdolmajid Arfaei says the newly-found pieces of the Cyrus cylinder had been housed in the British Museum.

“The pieces have most probably been housed in the museum and only recently recognized as parts of the Cyrus cylinder.”

The British Museum recently announced that some new parts of the cylinder’s broken pieces have been found, which might be a clue to some other documents sent by Cyrus the Great to other regions.

“If there are any new pieces, then they can provide more information about the contents of the cylinder,” Arfaei said.

I believe the discovery of additional pieces of the Cylinder is very important. If these pieces indeed belong to the Cylinder, they may supply additional information about Cyrus and his decree.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Cyrus the Great, Cyrus Cylinder

Cyrus the Great: A Liberator or a Despot?

During its history, the people of Israel had some form of contact with many kings and rulers of the empires and nations of the Ancient Near East. The kings and rulers of these nations were either friends or enemies, oppressors or allies of Israel. One of them, Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, was seen as a liberator of Israel and the one who allowed the people to return to their ancestral home. Deutero-Isaiah called Cyrus “a shepherd” (Isaiah 44:28) and “the Lord’s anointed,” his Messiah (Isaiah 45:1). Jerome, in his commentary on Isaiah called Cyrus a type of Christ.

An article published by Spiegel Online begins by praising Cyrus and his declaration of 539 B.C. as follows: “A 2,500-year-old cuneiform document ceremoniously displayed in a glass case at the United Nations in New York is revered as an ‘ancient declaration of human rights.’” The cuneiform document referred by the writer is the Cyrus Cylinder, a document which contains Cyrus’ proclamation that allowed the captive nations in the Babylonian empire to return to their homes.

According to the book of Ezra, the following proclamation was made throughout all of Cyrus’ kingdom:

“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel- he is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:1-4).

The version that appears in the Cyrus Cylinder contains a different reading:

All the kings of the entire world from the Upper to the Lower Sea, those who are seated in throne rooms, (those who) live in other [types of buildings as well as] all the kings of the West land living in tents, brought their heavy tributes and kissed my feet in Babylon. (As to the region) from . . . as far as Ashur and Susa, Agade, Eshnunna, the towns of Zamban, Me-Turnu, Der as well as the region of the Gutians, I returned to (these) sacred cities on the other side of the Tigris, the sanctuaries of which have been ruins for a long time, the images which (used) to live therein and established for them permanent sanctuaries. I (also) gathered all their former inhabitants and returned (to them) their habitations.

The article in Spiegel Online, however, portrays Cyrus as “a despot who had his enemies tortured.” According to the article, “The notion that Cyrus introduced concepts of human rights is nonsense.”

The article continues:

Hanspeter Schaudig, an Assyriologist at the University of Heidelberg in the southwestern Germany, says that he too would be hard-pressed to see the ancient king as a pioneer when it comes to equality and human dignity. Indeed, Cyrus demanded that his subjects kiss his feet.

The ruler was responsible for a 30-year war that consumed the Orient and forced millions to pay heavy taxes. Anyone who refused stood to have his nose and ears cut off. Those sentenced to death were buried up to their heads in sand, left to be finished off by the sun.

This article seeks to reverse the positive picture of Cyrus portrayed by ancient historians by claiming that his proclamation was “a brilliant piece of propaganda.”

No one would say that Cyrus was the ideal king but there is historical evidence that Cyrus was indeed a benevolent king who, for political reasons, allowed many conquered nations to return to their homes.

Read and evaluate the writer’s view of Cyrus. As for me, I have a more positive view of Cyrus than the writer of the article published by Spiegel Online.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Cyrus, Cyrus Cylinder