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Cyrus Cylinder

PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 3:31 am
by admin
Image

Babylonian relic to visit US with historic message of tolerance
The 539BC Cyrus cylinder, owned by the British Museum, is seen by some as the first declaration of human rights
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/ ... us-message

The Cyrus cylinder, made of clay and inscribed with cuneiform, was found on a dig in Babylon in 1979 before being acquired by the British Museum.
It is a deeply unimpressive looking object – about the size and shape of a rugby ball, made from hardened clay and incised all over with the stick-like characters of Babylonian cuneiform. And yet despite an unpromising appearance, it is hard to think of an artefact freighted with such significance for so many different peoples. Made shortly after Cyrus of Persia captured Babylon in 539BC, the Cyrus cylinder records how the ruler allowed deported peoples to return to their homelands and ushered in an era of religious tolerance in his new, multiethnic empire.

For Jews and Christians, it is the object that – along with passages of Isaiah – records the end of Jewish exile in Babylon. In Iran, it has by turns been used as a symbol of the shah's power and, most recently, when the cylinder toured to Tehran in 2010, was adopted as a rallying cry for Palestinian freedom by the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. For others, it is the first declaration of human rights, and an international symbol of religious tolerance. For Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, to which it belongs, it is the "first press release".

Next year, it will become clear how the Cyrus cylinder will be read in the US, when, for the first time, it is to be lent to museums across the Atlantic.

Further info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_Cylinder

The reference to Freemasons is revealed in the Royal Arch, = ' Cyrus King of Persia ' [ now Iran ]

Re: Cyrus Cylinder

PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 4:53 am
by jshandalla
admin wrote:The reference to Freemasons is revealed in the Royal Arch, = ' Cyrus King of Persia ' [ now Iran ]

Not just the Royal Arch, but in the AASR as well - the character of Cyrus plays a significant part in the 15th Degree, Knight of the East or Sword.

Re: Cyrus Cylinder

PostPosted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 1:05 am
by Loewenstein
Not discovered 1979, but 1879!

Re: Cyrus Cylinder

PostPosted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 1:23 am
by Susurration
jshandalla wrote:
admin wrote:The reference to Freemasons is revealed in the Royal Arch, = ' Cyrus King of Persia ' [ now Iran ]

Not just the Royal Arch, but in the AASR as well - the character of Cyrus plays a significant part in the 15th Degree, Knight of the East or Sword.

Cyrus is the key player in the "Knight of the Sword" in the Red Cross Council (In Ireland, US and now England, the Council of Knight Masons) the first of the three Degrees of the Captivity - Knight of the Sword, Knight of the East, Knight of the East and West.