The Cyrus Cylinder: Evidence and Legend

After Cyrus the Great of Persia took Babylon in 539 BCE, a clay cylinder was inscribed in Akkadian cuneiform praising his rule. It says Cyrus restored temples and allowed peoples who had been deported to return to their homelands. In the twentieth century the cylinder became famous as 'the first charter of human rights', especially after Iran's government promoted it in 1971, and a replica is displayed at the United Nations. Many historians question that label.

The text follows a traditional Mesopotamian style of royal propaganda, contrasting a good new king with a bad old one, and it never mentions rights. On the other hand, Persian policies of tolerating local religions and customs, also recorded in the Hebrew Bible's account of the return from exile, were unusual for the time. The cylinder is therefore a powerful case study in how a source's meaning can be reshaped by later generations.