Cyrus Cylinder - Biblical Archaeology Encyclopedia

Overview

A barrel-shaped clay foundation cylinder found in several pieces by Hormuzd Rassam at Babylon in 1879. The text, written in Babylonian script and language, first describes (in the third person) how Nabonidus, the last Neo-Babylonian king, disrupted the cult of Marduk and burdened Babylon's population with labour-service; how Marduk searched for a righteous ruler, called Cyrus king of Anshan by name, and let him enter Babylon without battle. From line 20 the text switches to Cyrus's own voice: 'I am Cyrus, king of the world...'.

Cyrus claims to have ended the forced labour at Babylon, received tribute from kings 'from the Upper to the Lower sea', returned the gods of a named list of cities (Ashur, Susa, Agade, Eshnunna, Zamban, Me-Turnu, Der, the land of the Gutians, the cities across the Tigris) to their shrines, and gathered their inhabitants back to their dwellings. The gods Nabonidus had brought into Babylon were returned 'by command of Marduk'. The text closes with food offerings and the rebuilding of Babylon's wall Imgur-Enlil, during which an older foundation inscription of Ashurbanipal was found.

The cylinder does not mention Judah, Jerusalem, the Jews, or YHWH. Its connection to the biblical return from exile is one of policy and phrasing (a king returning deported peoples and their cult objects on a god's command), not a direct reference. A fragment in Yale (NBC 2504) restoring lines 36-45 was identified and joined in the 1970s, and in 2009-2010 two fragments of a clay tablet carrying a copy of the same text were identified in the British Museum by W. G. Lambert and Irving Finkel, showing the text also circulated outside the foundation deposit.

In its own words

(32) the gods, who dwelt in them, I brought them back to their places, and caused them to dwell in a habitation for all time. All their inhabitants I collected and restored them to their dwelling places.R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (New York, 1912), p. 383, line 32

What the evidence shows

Museum record: fired clay cylinder, length 21.9-22.8 cm, BM 90920 / 1880,0617.1941, excavated by Hormuzd Rassam at Babylon (Amran).
The cylinder broke into several pieces in antiquity; it was refired in 1961; plaster fills were removed in 2007.
Lines 1-19 are in the third person (Marduk chooses Cyrus); lines 20 onward are in the first person of Cyrus.
Line 12 (Rogers 1912): Marduk 'sought a righteous prince... Cyrus, king of Anshan, he called by name'.
Line 17: Babylon entered 'without battle and conflict'; Nabonidus delivered into Cyrus's hand.
Lines 30-32 list the places whose gods and people were returned: all are in Mesopotamia and the lands east of the Tigris; no western (Syro-Palestinian) place is named.
Line 33: the gods of Sumer and Akkad that Nabonidus had brought into Babylon were returned to their shrines 'by command of Marduk'.
Closing lines (with the Yale fragment NBC 2504, lines 36-45) describe rebuilding the wall Imgur-Enlil and finding an inscription of Ashurbanipal.
Two fragments of a clay tablet carrying a copy of the cylinder's text were identified in the British Museum's collections in 2009-2010 (W. G. Lambert, I. Finkel); one clarifies a passage illegible on the cylinder, the other supplies part of its missing text.

Open questions

Scope of the 'repatriation': the text itself names only Mesopotamian and trans-Tigridian cult centres (lines 30-32). A. Kuhrt (JSOT 25, 1983) reads the cylinder as a Babylonian building inscription in the Mesopotamian royal tradition, praising Cyrus in terms used of earlier kings, and argues it cannot be taken as evidence of an empire-wide policy of freeing deportees. Readers who connect it with Ezra 1 point to the same clause: the pattern 'return the gods, gather the people' is the same kind of act Ezra 1:2-4 and 6:3-5 attribute to Cyrus for Jerusalem. The cylinder is silent on Judah; any link is our inference from the parallel.
Genre: the British Museum curatorial note records the suggestion (Harmatta 1971; see BM bibliography) that the author used Ashurbanipal's foundation inscription found in the wall as a literary model. The 2009-2010 tablet copies show the text also circulated on tablets; whether that means it was 'distributed throughout the empire' (British Museum statement reported in The Art Newspaper, Feb 2010) or only copied within Babylonia is not settled by two fragments of unknown findspot.
'Human rights charter': the text contains no statement of rights; the British Museum record says the concept 'would have been quite alien to Cyrus's contemporaries'. UNESCO's General Conference in November 2025 nevertheless adopted a resolution calling it 'an early charter of human rights and cultural diversity'. That is a modern political reading, not something the cuneiform says.

Since 2024

2024-01Cylinder lent to the Yale Peabody Museum, New Haven, 13 Jan-30 Jun 2024 (without the Yale fragment, loan L1166), per the British Museum exhibition history. [1]
2025-11UNESCO's 43rd General Conference (Samarkand, 6 Nov 2025) adopted a resolution naming the cylinder 'an early charter of human rights and cultural diversity'. No new reading of the text is involved; it is a modern political designation. [5]

Sources

British Museum, collection record 'The Cyrus Cylinder', museum no. 90920, reg. no. 1880,0617.1941 (Middle East department). link museum record
R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1912), 'The Cylinder of Cyrus', pp. 380-384. link translation
A. Kuhrt, 'The Cyrus Cylinder and Achaemenid Imperial Policy', Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 8/25 (1983): 83-97. DOI 10.1177/030908928300802507. link study
'Discovery of fragment belonging to British Museum's Cyrus cylinder further defers loan to Iran', The Art Newspaper, 1 February 2010. link study
'UNESCO's 2025 Cyrus Cylinder Resolution: Perpetuating the Shortcomings of the Traditional Paradigm of International Legal Historiography', EJIL:Talk! (blog of the European Journal of International Law), 2 January 2026 (pseudonymous author). link study

Corrected from the earlier edition of this page

Old entry dated the cylinder simply 'c. 539 BCE' as a 'decree': the British Museum record gives '539 BC (after)' and the text itself shows it is a foundation deposit for the Imgur-Enlil wall, not an edict document.
Old entry quoted the text as 'I allowed all the peoples to return to their homes...': no such sentence exists. Line 32 returns the gods and gathers the inhabitants of a specific list of Mesopotamian and trans-Tigridian cities (Rogers 1912, p. 383).
Old entry said the cylinder 'confirms Cyrus's tolerant policy described in Ezra/Chronicles' and 'aligns perfectly with the biblical account': the cylinder names no western city and no Jews; it attests the same kind of act in Mesopotamia, not the Judean return itself.
Old entry's 'Approximately 22 cm long' is correct but incomplete: museum record gives 21.9-22.8 cm long, max diameter 10 cm.
Old entry said it was 'discovered in 1879 during excavations in ancient Babylon' without noting it was found in fragments and that the text is incomplete; a Yale fragment (NBC 2504) supplies lines 36-45.

Checked against new publications through 2026-09.