Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Search this
Type:
Conversations and talks
YouTube Videos
Uploaded:
2013-05-20T20:12:53.000Z
Views:
7,588
Video Title:
The Cyrus Cylinder: The Discovery and Creation of an Icon
Description:
The Cyrus Cylinder was discovered at Babylon in 1879. Scholars soon realized its inscription corroborated with the biblical account of how the Jews brought to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar were repatriated by Cyrus and allowed to start building the Second Temple. While the Cylinder does not mention the Jews by name, it does refer to the restoration of sacred statues to various shrines together with the people from those shrines. It also gives a detailed count of Cyrus's capture of Babylon. From the beginning, the Cylinder was celebrated as an important historical document. It did not acquire its present iconic status until the late 1950s, however, when it began to be described as the First Charter of Human Rights. This came about partly because of the promotion of Cyrus by the Shah of Iran and other leading politicians as a liberal and enlightened monarch, and the belief that these values and ideals were enshrined in the Cylinder. This culminated in the choice of the Cylinder as the official symbol of the 2,500th anniversary of Persian monarchy in 1971. This talk considers whether the Cylinder can really be considered a human rights document or whether it is, as some scholars suggest, nothing more than a Babylonian building inscription. It also looks at the life of the Cylinder since 1971, and considers what it represents for different constituencies at the present time. John Curtis was Keeper of the Department of the Middle East at the British Museum 1989--2011, and is currently Keeper of Special Middle East Projects. He is particularly interested in Iraq and Iran and has published widely on those subjects. His recent books include Forgotten Empire: the World of Ancient Persia (2005) and An Examination of Late Assyrian Metalwork (2013). He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Corresponding Member of the Archaeological Institute of America.
Video Duration:
1 hr 14 min 6 sec
YouTube Keywords:
Freer sackler freersackler smithsonian asian art museum asia dc nmaa "national museum of asian art"
