539 BCE
Iraq
The British Museum
Details
Culture/Civilisation
Achaemenid Empire, Ancient Iran
Theme
Empire: Projecting Power
Subtheme
Words After War
Display Location
Coomaraswamy Hall
Findspot
Iraq
Accession Number
1880,0617.1941
Description
Let them go home!
When the Persian king Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539 BCE, he allowed people deported by the Babylonians to return to their homelands, and worship their gods in their sanctuaries. The strikingly humane act, restoring an earlier, better order, is recorded in this cylinder, laid at the foundation of a new building.
Cyrus’s decision enabled deported Jews to return to Jerusalem. Many later historians in consequence referred to Cyrus as ‘the Great’.
