The Cyrus Cylinder: a conqueror presents himself

The explanations distinguish finds, interpretations and open questions. Sources appear at the end of the page.

What the source says

According to the British Museum's collection record, the Cyrus Cylinder (museum number 90920, registration number 1880,0617.1941) is a cylinder of fired clay, 21.9-22.8 cm long. The recorded production place is Babylon, the findspot "Amran (Babylon)", and the excavator Hormuzd Rassam. The record states that the object "was found in several fragments in the 19th century and even after restoration is incomplete"; an additional fragment, NBC 2504, on loan from the Yale Babylonian Collection, restores part of lines 36-45. On 24 October 2026 the record placed the cylinder on display in Room 52 (Ancient Iran), Display Case 4. Source 1.

What the text says

According to the museum's summary, the text is written in Babylonian script and language. It records that Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon (555-539 BC), had perverted the cults of the Babylonian gods, including Marduk, the city-god, and had imposed labour-service on its free population, who complained to the gods. Marduk looked for a champion to restore the old ways, chose Cyrus, King of Anshan (Persia), and declared him king of the world; he ordered him to march on Babylon, which Cyrus entered "without a fight", and the people of Babylon joyfully accepted his kingship. Cyrus claims to have restored the temples and cults of neighbouring countries and to have returned their previously deported gods and people. The text ends with an account of the rebuilding of Imgur-Enlil, the city wall, during which an earlier building inscription of Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria (668-627 BC), was found. Source 1.

How a conqueror presents himself

In the text as the museum summarises it, the Persian conqueror does not speak only in his own name: the city's god chooses him, his predecessor is described as having harmed the cults and the inhabitants, and the conquest is presented as peaceful and as a restoration. The form is Babylonian too: according to the record, the cylindrical form is typical of royal inscriptions of the Late Babylonian period, and it has been suggested that the author took the Ashurbanipal inscription as his literary model. A passage attributed on the page to Wiesehöfer calls the cylinder "an Achaemenid propaganda document" intended to legitimise and glorify Cyrus' rule in Babylonia. Source 1.

Dating

The record dates the cylinder "539BC (after)": according to the record it was deposited after the capture of the city by Cyrus in 539 BC and "presumably written on his orders", and the text shows that it was written to be buried in the foundations of the city wall of Babylon. That is a lower limit, not an exact year. The Met's timeline places in the same year, 539 B.C., the incorporation of Mesopotamia into the empire of Cyrus, so the article is placed in the site's Achaemenid period in Mesopotamia. Sources 1, 2.

What can and cannot be said

The cylinder shows how the new rule chose to present itself in Babylon: in the language, script and form of Babylonian kings. It is not independent evidence for the events it describes: "without a fight" and "joyfully" are the text's words, and the museum record cites no other source that confirms or refutes them. Even the findspot is not self-evident: for the evidence on the findspot the record refers to Walker C B F 1972a. Source 1.

Scope of reading: the British Museum's collection record for the cylinder was read on 24 October 2026, including its description, curator's comments and fields, together with the Met timeline page for 1000 B.C.-1 A.D. The Babylonian text itself, a full translation, Walker's publication and accounts of Rassam's excavation were not read; the summary above is the museum's, not an independent reading of the cylinder.