The Cyrus Cylinder in Ancient Persia

Interesting story for those of  us about to teach Greece and the Persian Empire.

Sometimes called the "first first bill of human rights," the Cyrus Cylinder is one of the most famous objects in the British Museum and will travel to the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery next March. The cylinder is inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform and is famous because of King Cyrus's encouragement of religious freedom throughout his empire.