First declaration of human rights to tour five museum venues, including Houston

Houston—November 28, 2012—The British Museum announced today that one of its most iconic objects, the Cyrus Cylinder, will tour five major museum venues in the United States, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in May 2013. The tour is supported by the Iran Heritage Foundation.

The Cyrus Cylinder is among the most famous objects to have survived from the ancient world. The Cylinder was inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform (cuneiform is the earliest form of writing) on the orders of the Persian King Cyrus the Great (559–530 BC) after he captured Babylon in 539 BC. It is often referred to as the first bill of human rights since it appears to encourage freedom of worship throughout the Persian Empire and to allow deported people to return to their homelands. It was first found in Babylon, which is now in modern Iraq, in 1879 during a British Museum excavation, and has been on display at the British Museum ever since.

The Cyrus Cylinder is truly an object of world heritage, produced for a Persian king and seen and studied for over 130 years in the British Museum. It is valued by people around the world as a symbol of tolerance and respect for different peoples and different faiths, so much so that a copy of the cylinder is on display at the United Nations in New York. The British Museum previously lent the Cylinder to the National Museum of Iran in 2010–11 where it was seen by over one million people. This tour provides an opportunity for an American audience to engage with this unique object of world importance.

The tour will begin at the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, in Washington, DC in March 2013 before traveling to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (full schedule below). The exhibition is curated by John Curtis, Keeper of Special Middle East Projects at the British Museum, and curatorial colleagues at each of the venues.

Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, has said, “You could almost say that the Cyrus Cylinder is a history of the Middle East in one object, and it is a link to a past which we all share and to a key moment in history that has shaped the world around us. Objects are uniquely able to speak across time and space, and this object must be shared as widely as possible. I am delighted that it will travel to the U.S. and am hugely grateful to both our U.S. partners and the Iran Heritage Foundation for making this possible.”

“The Cyrus Cylinder tells a great story of human history,” commented Gary Tinterow, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. “We are thrilled to be able to bring this touchstone of ancient civilization to Houston, and to present the Cyrus Cylinder and related objects in the context of our collections.”

John Curtis, Keeper of Special Middle East Projects at the British Museum said, “The Cyrus Cylinder and associated objects represent a new beginning for the Ancient Near East. The Persian period, commencing in 550 BC, was not just a change of dynasty but a time of change in the ancient world. Some of these changes and innovations are highlighted in the exhibition.”

Alireza Rastegar, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Iran Heritage Foundation America, said, “Iran Heritage Foundation is proud to be partners with the British Museum and The Freer and Sackler Galleries in bringing this timely and magnificent exhibition to the United States. The Cyrus Cylinder and its message of respect for diversity and universal human rights provides a background of tolerance for all of us today. We are very grateful to the Iranian American community of the United States who have supported us in this endeavour and are looking forward to a positive reception throughout the USA.”

The Cylinder will travel with an exhibition of 16 objects that are testimony to the innovations initiated by Persian rule in the Ancient Near East (550–331 BC). The Persian Empire was then the largest the world had known. It had a huge impact on the ancient world, introducing changes in terms of ethical behavior as witnessed in the proclamation on the Cyrus Cylinder. A gold plaque from the Oxus Treasure with the representation of a priest shows the spread of the Zoroastrian religion at this time. Persian kings also introduced a new writing system, Old Persian cuneiform, as seen on part of a column base from Hamadan and on the famous seal of Darius (522–486 BC). The kings also developed new forms of luxury goods, including beautifully decorated gold and silver bowls and sumptuous gold bracelets featuring fantastic animal shapes, some of them from the Oxus Treasure.

More about the Cyrus Cylinder
The Cylinder is 9 inches (22.86 centimeters) in length, is barrel shaped and made of baked clay. It is inscribed all the way around with a proclamation in cuneiform script. Originally it was inscribed and buried in the foundations of a wall after Cyrus the Great, the Persian Emperor, captured Babylon in 539 BC.

The Cylinder was written in Babylonian cuneiform by a Babylonian scribe. It records that, aided by the god Marduk, Cyrus captured Babylon without a struggle, restored shrines dedicated to different gods and repatriated deported peoples who had been brought to Babylon. The text does not mention specific religious groups, but it is thought that the Jews were among the peoples deported by Nebuchadnezzar (the previous ruler of Babylon) who were now allowed to return home. The Bible reports that the deported Jews returned from Babylon at this time and rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. Indeed, Cyrus is praised in the Hebrew Bible because of the qualities of tolerance and respect enshrined in the Cylinder proclamation. These were enlightened acts, rare in antiquity.

In 2010, the British Museum discovered two fragments of tablet in its extensive collection of cuneiform tablets which had also been found in 19th-century British Museum excavations in or near Babylon. These fragments were identified by experts at the museum as being inscribed with parts of the same text as the Cylinder but do not belong to it. They show that the text of the Cylinder was probably a proclamation that was widely distributed across the Persian Empire.

Exhibition Schedule
• Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (March 9–April 28, 2013)
• The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (May 3–June 14, 2013)
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art (June 20–August 2, 2013)
• The Asian Art Museum (August 9–September 22, 2013)
• The J. Paul Getty Museum (September 30–December 2, 2013)

This exhibition is organized by the British Museum in partnership with the Iran Heritage Foundation and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, and hosted by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

About the British Museum
The British Museum was founded in 1753, the first national public museum in the world. From the outset its mission was to be a “museum of the world for the world.” This ambition still lies at the heart of the Museum today. The collection tells the story of cultural achievement throughout the world, from the dawn of human history over two million years ago, until the present day. The Museum is committed to lending the collection as widely as possible for maximum public benefit. www.britishmuseum.org

About the Iran Heritage Foundation
Iran Heritage Foundation is the leading supporter of Iranian studies in the UK. It promotes academic research through fellowships, grants, scholarships and publications. In association with museums and leading institutions, the IHF organizes exhibitions and convenes conferences on the history and contemporary culture of Iran. IHF America, launched in 2012 as a US-based nonprofit organization, administers a number of grants to North American institutions and is the core funder of the tour of the Cyrus Cylinder.

About the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Founded in 1900, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is among the 10 largest art museums in the United States. Located in the heart of Houston’s Museum District, the MFAH comprises two gallery buildings, a sculpture garden, library, theater and two art schools, with two house museums, for American and European decorative arts, nearby. The encyclopedic collection of the MFAH numbers more than 64,000 works and embraces the art of antiquity to the present. www.mfah.org

Media Contacts
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Mary Haus, Marketing and Communications Director, mhaus@mfah.org
Amy Lowman, Publicist, alowman@mfah.org
713.639.7554

The British Museum
Hannah Boulton, Head of Press and Marketing, hboulton@britishmuseum.org
+44 207.323.8522