Cyrus Cylinder trivia

Cyrus Cylinder Mini Quiz

Test your knowledge with these top questions!

Question 1

Persian king Cyrus the Great created the clay Cyrus Cylinder to announce what major policy?

Issued after conquering Babylon in 539 BC, the decree helped Cyrus peacefully consolidate his massive empire by acting as a liberator.

Question 2

Detailing the return of exiled groups, the Persian Cyrus Cylinder is famous for corroborating what major Biblical event?

The cylinder describes Cyrus allowing deported peoples to return home, historically aligning with the Book of Ezra's account of Jews returning to Judah.

Question 3

Found in Babylon, the ancient Persian Cyrus Cylinder is inscribed in what script, named for its distinctive "wedge-shaped" marks?

Scribes pressed a reed stylus into damp clay to create these wedge-shaped marks, specifically writing the text in the Akkadian language.

Question 4

The Cyrus Cylinder, an ancient Persian artifact, holds what symbolic title at the United Nations?

A replica sits in the UN headquarters in New York because its message of religious tolerance is seen as an early model for modern rights.

Question 5

Modern historians and the UN celebrate the Persian Cyrus Cylinder as the world's first what?

The United Nations translated the Cyrus Cylinder into all official languages, promoting it as an early declaration of human rights for its progressive policies on freedom.

Question 6

Persian king Cyrus the Great issued the Cyrus Cylinder to allow which captive group to return home?

The Cyrus Cylinder historically corroborates biblical accounts by describing how Cyrus allowed exiled peoples, famously including the Jews, to return to their homelands.

Question 7

Ancient artisans shaped the baked clay of the Persian Cyrus Cylinder to resemble what object?

The Cyrus Cylinder was inscribed on a distinctive barrel-shaped cylinder of baked clay to be buried as a foundation deposit.

Question 8

The text on the Persian Cyrus Cylinder justifies Cyrus the Great's capture of what ancient city?

The cylinder's cuneiform inscriptions praise Cyrus the Great and legitimize his peaceful conquest of Babylon and the deposition of its king, Nabonidus.