'Cyrus Cylinder' a Reminder Of Persian Legacy of Tolerance
Iran’s government encouraged the British Museum to send the Cyrus Cylinder, an ancient artifact celebrating religious liberty, to the United States, the museum director says.
For an artifact with such an awesome legacy, the Cyrus Cylinder is remarkably unprepossessing.
It looks like a small loaf of rye bread from which someone has broken off a chunk.
Yet this nine-inch long piece of baked clay inscribed with cuneiform script — which begins a five-city tour of the United States in Washington this week -- has inspired religious and political thinkers from ancient times through the drafters of the US Constitution and the founders of modern-day Israel. It also serves as a source of hope and pride to Iranians inside and outside Iran who are saddened by the current state of civil liberties in their homeland.
On loan from the British Museum, the cylinder is more than 26 centuries old and was discovered near Babylon in what is now Iraq in 1879. It recounts the capture of Babylon by the Persian King Cyrus and his proclamation of freedom for religious minorities, including those who had been brought as slaves to Babylon.
