Item Details

Item No. 1366

This extraordinary sculpture is a replica of the original tablet as it can be seen today, including the decay from age and erosion. This hieroglyphic scroll is the original scroll of Cyrus The Great (Kourosh), who established the first Declaration of Human Rights Charter the world had ever known around 550 BC. A replica is also on display at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York. This recounts the famous decree that allows the Jews to return to Jerusalem.

Here are a few of the words from the inscription:

The worship of Marduk, the king of the gods, he [Nabonidus] changed into abomination. Daily he used to do evil against his city [Babylon] ... He [Marduk] scanned and looked [through] all the countries, searching for a righteous ruler willing to lead [him] [in the annual procession]. [Then] he pronounced the name of Cyrus, king of Anshan, declared him to be[come) the ruler of all the world ... I am Cyrus, king of the world, great king, legitimate king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four rims [of the earth], son of Cambyses, great king, king of Anshan, grandson of Cyrus, great king, king of Anshan, descendant of Teispes, great king, king of Anshan, of a family [which] always [exercised] kingship; whose rule Bel [Marduk] and Nebo love, whom they want as king to please their hearts ... I did not allow anybody to terrorize [any place] of the [country of Sumer] and Akkad. I strove for peace in Babylon and in all his [other] sacred cities. As to the inhabitants of Babylon ... I abolished forced labour ... From Nineveh, Assur and Susa, Akkad, Eshnunna, Zamban, Me-Turnu and Der until the region of Gutium, I returned to these sacred cities on the other side of the Tigris, the sanctuaries of which have been ruins for a long time, the images which [used] to live therein and established for them permanent sanctuaries. I [also] gathered all their [former] inhabitants and returned [to them] their habitations.

Dimensions:  Base 11 cm x 5 cm x 3 cm (approx. 4.25" x 2" x 1.25"); Scroll 10 cm x 3 cm x 3 cm (approx. 4" x 1.25" x 1.25"). Shipping weight 1.80 pounds.