British Museum, who promised to send to Iran, the Persian king cylinder of Cyrus the Great, put the transfer of the artifact after the discovery of two tablets, which should help to better understand the texts in the cylinder

Representatives of the British Museum announced that delaying shipment to Iran of the cylinder of the Persian king Cyrus the Great, who earlier promised to convey to Tehran for the display for three months . This is due to the fact that on 5 January in the museum collection were found, two of the Babylonian cuneiform tablets with inscriptions similar to those available on the cylinder of Cyrus the Great. Experts want to study them, in order to learn more about the missing and obscure passages of text on a cylinder of Cyrus the Great. And then the two plates will be put up in Tehran, together with the cylinder.

«We have agreed with our Iranian colleagues to postpone the transfer of the cylinder, so that together with them to explore new discoveries," - said Head of Press Service of the British Museum Hannah Bolton (Hannah Boulton). She also explained why the two plates were found just now: "Our collection contains 200 thousand cuneiform tablets, and specialists who can read and translate the cuneiform writing, not so much».

Cylinder King Cyrus the Great dates back 539-530 years. BC. e. and contains the text, which is considered the oldest manifesto on human rights. The British Museum has promised to allocate it for display in Iran after the exhibition "Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia", held in 2005-2006. After a long wait Organization of cultural heritage, handicrafts and tourism of Iran in October last year threatened to sever all relations with the British Museum, if he does not fulfill its promise. In response, the British side agreed to send the cylinder to Tehran in January 2010. But now the transfer of an ancient artifact is postponed indefinitely.

Material prepared Ekaterina Guseva, AI

Sources: bloomberg.com , artinvestment . ru