Iran Says Archaeological Agreements are Under Threat in British Museum Cyrus Cylinder Row

Submitted by MalcolmJ on Tue, 10/13/2009 - 17:21

A week after Egypt announced it was suspending archaeological cooperation with The Louvre in Paris in an argument over the return of fragments of a Theban Tomb, Iran has threatened to sever archaeological relations with Britain unless an agreement by the British Museum in London to loan out the Cyrus Cylinder is honoured within the next two months.

The artefact – a 6th century BC Babylonian cuneiform-inscribed clay cylinder, which has been described as the “first charter of human rights” – was due to arrive in Iran in September. But the British Museum have cited the “political situation” in post-election Iran – which they say they are “monitoring” – as the reason for the delay.

This has outraged the Iranians, who have laid down their ultimatum after questioning what “domestic political developments” have to do with “cultural heritage.” An irate Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi is quoted by Reuters as saying: “The British party did not honor its pledge on illogical, illegal and unethical grounds.” He later adds: “If within this period this pledge is not honored then all agreements in archaeological research, trade fairs and so on with Britain might be harmed.”

Hamid Baqaei, vice president of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, reinforced the Iranian position in an interview with the state-run Fars news agency. “If the British Museum fails to send the Cyrus Cylinder in the next two months to be shown in Iran,” said Baqaei, as quoted by Bloomberg, “we will cease any mutual activities with them, including archaeological cooperation and holding cultural heritage exhibitions in the UK.”

"As ever with any kind of loan we’d want to be assured that the situation in the country was suitable.”

Hannah Boulton, head of press at the British Museum, played down the row when she spoke to Bloomberg. “We certainly have committed to lending the Cyrus Cylinder to Iran, and it is fully our intention to do that,” she said. “We hope that we’ll be able to honor that commitment as soon as possible. As ever with any kind of loan we’d want to be assured that the situation in the country was suitable.”

The British Museum is, of course, no stranger to controversy. The Greeks continue to forcefully demand from them the return of The Elgin Marbles, which were removed to Britain from the Parthenon in Athens on dubious grounds by Sir Thomas Bruce between 1801 and 1812. Recently, the debate over the 12th century Lewis Chessmen – the majority of which are kept by the British Museum, despite being discovered on an island in Scotland in 1831 – has resulted in a loan agreement, but the Scottish Government continues to call for their permanent repatriation.

The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, meanwhile, continues to demand the return of the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum, as well as other “stolen” Egyptian antiquities abroad such as the Bust of Nefertiti, which will this weekend take pride of place at the opening of Berlin’s Neues Museum.

Picture by M. Ignacio Monge García. Some rights reserved.

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Malcolm Jack (follow me: e-mail or

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10 Reasons Why Socrates is Still Relevant Today | Top 10 Ancient Greek Philosophers | Interview: Bettany Hughes on The Hemlock Cup and Bringing Ancient History Into the 21st Century

Malcolm Jack is a freelance arts and entertainment journalist based in Glasgow, Scotland. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2004 with an MA Honours Degree in History.

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<td height="20" width="51" style="height: 15.2pt; width: 38pt;" class="xl27">The Cyrus Cylinder is an ancient clay cylinder<a href='http://www.dominateseo.net/customer/index.php?linkwheel-link-wheel-service&cid=236'>,</a> now broken into several fragments, on which is written a declaration in Akkadian cuneiform script in the name of the Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great. It dates from the 6th century BC and was discovered in the ruins of Babylon in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) in 1879. It is currently in the possession of the British Museum, which sponsored the expedition that discovered the cylinder. The cylinder was created following the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 BC, when Cyrus' army invaded and conquered the Neo-Babylonian Empire, incorporating it into the Persian Empire.<br />
The text on the Cylinder praises Cyrus the Great, listing his genealogy as a king from a line of kings. The Babylonian king Nabonidus, (see earlier Cylinder of Nabonidus), who was defeated and deposed by Cyrus, is denounced as an impious oppressor of the people of Babylonia and his low-born origins are implicitly contrasted to Cyrus's kingly heritage. The victorious Cyrus is portrayed as having been chosen by the chief Babylonian god Marduk to restore peace and order to the Babylonians. The text states that Cyrus was welcomed by the people of Babylon as their new ruler and entered the city in peace. It appeals to Marduk to protect and help Cyrus and his son Cambyses. It exalts Cyrus's efforts as a benefactor of the citizens of Babylonia who improved their lives, repatriated displaced people and restored temples and cult sanctuaries across Mesopotamia and elsewhere in the region. It concludes with a description of the work of Cyrus in repairing the city wall of Babylon, in which he found a similar inscription by an earlier king of Babylon.</td>
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Thu, 13-10-2011 07:42

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