event · E0354
Cyrus Cylinder גליל כורש
A barrel-shaped clay foundation cylinder of Koresh (Cyrus the Great), buried in a wall in Babylon after the city fell to him in 539 BCE and found there by Hormuzd Rassam in March 1879; now British Museum BM 90920, Room 52. In it the king — chosen, the text says, by Marduk — enters Babylon without battle, ends forced labor, and returns displaced peoples and their gods to their homes and sanctuaries. It is the return-to-Zion policy in the king's own words — the imperial backdrop of Ezra 1 — though the cylinder itself never mentions Yehud, Jerusalem, or the Jews.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- גליל כורש
- Also known as
- Koresh Cylinder
- Era
- bible
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3389–3390 AM — the atlas's traditional anchor for Koresh's first year and the return (E0006) is 3390 AM
- Civil (computed)
- 3389–3390 AM · 372–371 BCE (trad.)
- Academic
- 539–538 BCE
- Date range
- 539–538 BCE, after Cyrus's entry into Babylon
- Duration
- ≈1 years
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Bavel
IV. What
- Events
- Return to Zion
Why it matters
"So says Koresh king of Persia... whoever is among you of all His people — let him go up." Ezra opens with a Persian king sending exiles home to rebuild a ruined sanctuary, and this clay barrel is the closest surviving thing to that decree's imperial template: Cyrus himself, in his own foundation text, announcing that he entered Babylon without battle and sent displaced peoples and their gods back to their homes and shrines. One honesty note must ride with it: the cylinder speaks of Babylonian cult centers and their neighbors, and never names Yehud, Jerusalem, or the Jews. It is not the decree of Ezra 1 — it is the evidence that such decrees were this king's actual policy, of which the return to Zion was our instance.
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The cylinder was found in March 1879 by Hormuzd Rassam, excavating for the British Museum at Babylon (south of the Amran ibn Ali mound), where it had been deposited as a foundation document after the city fell to Cyrus in 539 BCE; it is BM 90920, displayed in Room 52 (Ancient Iran). | archaeology external | ★★★★★ | |
| In the text, Cyrus — presented as chosen by Marduk — enters Babylon without battle, abolishes the forced labor imposed on its people, and declares that he returned displaced peoples to their settlements and restored their gods to their sanctuaries "and let them dwell in eternal abodes." The restoration of exiled populations and their worship is imperial policy, announced by the king himself. | archaeology external | ★★★★★ | |
| The cylinder never mentions Yehud, Jerusalem, or the Jews: its named beneficiaries are Babylonian and neighboring cult centers. It therefore evidences the pattern of restoration edicts of which Ezra 1 records our instance — the same king, the same policy, the same first year — and must not be captioned as "the decree of Koresh to the Jews." Yeshayahu names Koresh as the anointed rebuilder generations before his rise; the cylinder shows the historical king acting in character.
The popular "first charter of human rights" framing is modern myth-making and is deliberately not used here. The connection to Ezra 1 is a policy-pattern inference, stated as such.
|
biblical archaeology external | ★★★★☆ | |
| The atlas places the cylinder at its composition, 539–538 BCE, aligned with the atlas's traditional anchor for Koresh's first year and the return to Zion, 3390 AM (Return to Zion). The traditional and academic chronologies of the Persian period diverge; the alignment is at the anchor event, not a year-for-year mapping.
Schematic placement for the atlas timeline.
|
tradition reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ |