Cyrus Cylinder: How a Persian monarch inspired Jefferson
BBC online
The 2,600-year-old clay cylinder, almost the size of an American football, was made on the order of the Persian King Cyrus after he captured Babylon in 539 BC.
Referred to by some scholars as the "first bill on human rights", the cuneiform inscriptions on the cylinder appear to encourage freedom of worship throughout the Persian Empire and to allow deported people to return to their homelands.
