The Cyrus Cylinder is one of the most famous objects to have survived from the ancient world. It was inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform on the orders of Persian King Cyrus the Great after he captured Babylon in 539 BC. Introduced by former Director of the British Museum Neil MacGregor, discover the story of this incredible object and its enduring legacy in this video. | British Museum

Cyrus the Great died #onthisday in 530 BC. His Achaemenid empire, now often known as the Persian empire, stretched from South Asia to the Balkans. This object is known as the ‘Cyrus cylinder’ – it details his conquest of Babylon in 539 BC. Inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform, an ancient system of writing, the cylinder has sometimes been described as the 'first charter of human rights'. In fact it reflects a long tradition in Mesopotamia where, from as early as the third millennium BC, kings began