The Cyrus Cylinder: An Empire's Founding Proclamation
A clay cylinder buried in Babylon's foundations recorded Cyrus restoring temples and sending exiled peoples home
Quick facts
- Commissioned by
- Cyrus the Great
- Date
- 539 BCE
- Material
- Fired clay cylinder
- Held at
- The British Museum
What happened
After capturing Babylon, Cyrus the Great had a fired clay cylinder inscribed with a Babylonian-language account of his conquest and buried in the foundations of the city wall, in the same tradition of royal foundation deposits used by earlier Mesopotamian kings, including one earlier deposit from Ashurbanipal that was found alongside it. The cylinder's text presents Cyrus restoring statues of gods that the previous king, Nabonidus, had removed from their temples, returning them along with their priesthoods, and claims Cyrus freed the people of Babylon from forced labor Nabonidus had imposed on them. The inscription also describes Marduk, chief god of Babylon, instructing Cyrus to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and allow the Jewish population deported by Nebuchadnezzar II to return home, tying the object directly to the end of the Babylonian Captivity begun decades earlier.
Why it matters
Because of its language about restoring deported peoples and their gods, the Cyrus Cylinder has sometimes been described in modern times as an early charter of religious tolerance or human rights, though the British Museum notes plainly that such a concept would have been alien to Cyrus's own era and the cylinder itself says nothing about rights in any modern sense. What it documents concretely is a real reversal of earlier Assyrian and Babylonian policy: instead of continuing forced deportation, Cyrus's government permitted deported populations, including the Jews of the Babylonian Captivity, to return to their homelands.
How we know
The cylinder itself, found in several fragments during 19th-century excavation and incomplete even after restoration, is held at the British Museum, where its Babylonian cuneiform text has been translated directly and its physical construction, including its condition and manufacturing sequence, documented from the object.
Sources
- The British Museum. The Cyrus Cylinder · Primary source (author-declared)britishmuseum.org · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match).
- The British Museum. The Cyrus Cylinder (on the return of exiled peoples) · Primary source (author-declared)britishmuseum.org · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match).
- World History Encyclopedia. Cyrus Cylinder · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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