Cyrus Cylinder
E11366
The Cyrus Cylinder is an ancient clay artifact inscribed with a proclamation by the Persian king Cyrus the Great, often regarded as an early charter of human rights and a key source on his policies toward conquered peoples.
All labels observed (6)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Cyrus Cylinder canonical | 11 |
| Achaemenid royal inscriptions | 1 |
| Babylonian exile decree of Cyrus | 1 |
| Cyrus Cylinder decree | 1 |
| decree of Cyrus of Persia | 1 |
| edict of Cyrus of Persia | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T113362 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Cyrus Cylinder Context triple: [Babylonian exile, describedBySource, Cyrus Cylinder]
-
A.
Belshazzar’s Feast
Belshazzar’s Feast is a dramatic biblical painting by Rembrandt depicting the moment a mysterious divine inscription appears on the wall during the Babylonian king’s lavish banquet.
-
B.
Seal of the Prophets
Seal of the Prophets is an Islamic title for Muhammad signifying his role as the final prophet in the line of prophetic messengers.
-
C.
Corpus Juris Civilis
Corpus Juris Civilis is the monumental codification of Roman law ordered by Emperor Justinian in the 6th century, which became a foundational source for many later European legal systems.
-
D.
Labarum
The Labarum is an early Christian military standard bearing the Chi-Rho symbol, famously associated with the Roman emperor Constantine the Great.
-
E.
Temple of Dendur
The Temple of Dendur is an ancient Egyptian sandstone temple, built by the Roman emperor Augustus around 15 BCE and now prominently displayed in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Cyrus Cylinder Target entity description: The Cyrus Cylinder is an ancient clay artifact inscribed with a proclamation by the Persian king Cyrus the Great, often regarded as an early charter of human rights and a key source on his policies toward conquered peoples.
-
A.
Belshazzar’s Feast
Belshazzar’s Feast is a dramatic biblical painting by Rembrandt depicting the moment a mysterious divine inscription appears on the wall during the Babylonian king’s lavish banquet.
-
B.
Seal of the Prophets
Seal of the Prophets is an Islamic title for Muhammad signifying his role as the final prophet in the line of prophetic messengers.
-
C.
Corpus Juris Civilis
Corpus Juris Civilis is the monumental codification of Roman law ordered by Emperor Justinian in the 6th century, which became a foundational source for many later European legal systems.
-
D.
Labarum
The Labarum is an early Christian military standard bearing the Chi-Rho symbol, famously associated with the Roman emperor Constantine the Great.
-
E.
Temple of Dendur
The Temple of Dendur is an ancient Egyptian sandstone temple, built by the Roman emperor Augustus around 15 BCE and now prominently displayed in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Achaemenid inscription
ⓘ
ancient artifact ⓘ clay cylinder ⓘ inscribed object ⓘ |
| associatedDynasty | Achaemenid Empire ⓘ |
| associatedWith | Cyrus the Great ⓘ |
| category |
Cyrus Cylinder
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Achaemenid royal inscriptions
Mesopotamian archaeology ⓘ |
| collection |
British Museum
ⓘ
surface form:
British Museum Middle East Department
|
| condition | fragmentary ⓘ |
| content |
account of conquest of Babylon
ⓘ
denunciation of Nabonidus ⓘ proclamation of Cyrus as king of Babylon ⓘ restoration of temples and cults ⓘ return of displaced peoples and their gods ⓘ |
| country | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
Babylon
ⓘ
surface form:
Babylonia
|
| creator | Cyrus the Great ⓘ |
| currentLocation | British Museum ⓘ |
| dateCreated |
6th century BCE
ⓘ
circa 539–530 BCE ⓘ |
| discoveredBy | Hormuzd Rassam ⓘ |
| discoveryDate | 1879 ⓘ |
| discoveryPlace | site of Babylon ⓘ |
| excavationSponsor | British Museum ⓘ |
| hasCopy | modern replicas in various institutions ⓘ |
| hasFragments | several missing pieces ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
important source on Achaemenid imperial ideology
ⓘ
influential in modern discussions of religious tolerance ⓘ key source on Cyrus’s rule in Babylon ⓘ often described as an early charter of human rights ⓘ |
| influenced | modern interpretations of human rights history ⓘ |
| inscriptionType |
foundation inscription
ⓘ
royal proclamation ⓘ |
| language | Akkadian ⓘ |
| material | baked clay ⓘ |
| mentionsDeity | Marduk ⓘ |
| museumCity |
London, England
ⓘ
surface form:
London
|
| museumInventoryNumber | BM 90920 ⓘ |
| placeOfOrigin |
Babylon
ⓘ
Mesopotamia ⓘ |
| politicalFunction |
propaganda text
ⓘ
royal legitimation ⓘ |
| purpose |
commemorate conquest of Babylon
ⓘ
foundation deposit in city wall ⓘ record policies toward conquered peoples ⓘ |
| referencedBy | United Nations exhibitions ⓘ |
| religiousContext |
Babylonian polytheism
ⓘ
surface form:
Babylonian religion
|
| scriptDirection | left-to-right horizontal rows ⓘ |
| shape | barrel-shaped cylinder ⓘ |
| writingSystem | Akkadian cuneiform ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Cyrus Cylinder Description of subject: The Cyrus Cylinder is an ancient clay artifact inscribed with a proclamation by the Persian king Cyrus the Great, often regarded as an early charter of human rights and a key source on his policies toward conquered peoples.
Referenced by (16)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Achaemenid royal inscriptions
this entity surface form:
decree of Cyrus of Persia
this entity surface form:
Cyrus Cylinder decree
subject surface form:
Cyrus the Great
subject surface form:
Cyrus the Great
this entity surface form:
edict of Cyrus of Persia
this entity surface form:
Babylonian exile decree of Cyrus