Cyrus' Edict & the Chinese Cuneiform Bones

Cyrus the Great & Cyrus Cylinder Series:
» Cyrus the Great (at Zoroastrian Heritage)
» Cyrus the Great - His Religion & Inspiration
» Cyrus the Great - Pasargadae, Capital (at Zoroastrian Heritage)
» Cyrus the Great - Information Sources
» Cyrus the Great - Xenophon's Cyropaedia (at Zoroastrian Heritage)
» Cyrus the Great - Hebrew Bible Quotes
» Cyrus Cylinder
» Cyrus Cylinder & its Discoverer Hormuzd Rassam
» Cyrus Cylinder - its Remarkable Discovery
» Cyrus Cylinder - Contents (Eduljee)
» Cyrus Cylinder - Translation (Rogers)
» Cyrus Cylinder - Translation (Finkel)
» Cyrus' Edict & the Chinese Cuneiform Bones
» Cyrus Cylinder - Talk by Neil MacGregor

In 1928, Xue Shenwei, a Chinese traditional doctor was shown two inscribed fossilized horse bones that bore a script that was unknown to him [and presumably to the then owner(s) of the artifacts as well].

Bone shaft found in China and inscribed in a cuneiform script.
Image credit: Palace Museum, China and currently at CAIS

Second bone shaft found in China and inscribed in a cuneiform script.
Image credit: Palace Museum, China and currently at CAIS

The bones had been found somewhere in China. Seven years later, Xue decided to purchase the bones. He bought the first bone in 1935 and the second one in 1940. Xue presumed they were written in an unknown ancient script that had been used in China.

In 1966, during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Xue buried the bones for safe keeping. Years later, when he thought the threat of the bones being confiscated or destroyed had passed, he dug up bones and in 1983, took them to the Palace Museum in Beijing' Forbidden City for examination and assessment. The inscription collection of the Palace Museum is the largest of its kind in China and Xue likely hoped that the museums curators and experts might be able to shed some light on the script. It was then that Xue learnt that the script on the bones was not a lost Chinese script, but cuneiform. In 1985, shortly before his demise, Xue donated the bones to the Museum naming the seller(s) from whom he had purchased the bones.

14th-12th cent. oracle (ox) bones from
Xiaotun, China. Excavated in 1945.
Currently part of the Schøyen Collection
Image credit: Schøyen Collection

[It is of some interest to note that inscribed animal bones have been discovered in China dating back to the 14th-12th cent. BCE. The inscriptions are the oldest surviving examples of the Chinese script used to write complete and meaningful sentences. The inscribed bones are referred to as oracles bones. The bones in our example shown at the right are from an ox’s scapula (shoulder blade). About 10,000 oracle bones are known to exist.

Nearly all known Chinese oracle bones are from Xiaotun (also Yinxu or Yin Xu) located 3 km north-west of Anyang the ancient capital of the Late Shang Dynasty. Anyang itself is located in the northern province of Henan not far from the eastern terminus of the Silk Roads (the Aryan trade roads), namely, the cities of Zhengzhou and Luoyang. This region would have been very familiar to Iranian traders especially Sogdians who had colonies along the Silk Roads in China.

The oracle bones date to the reign of Wu Ding, who died around 1189 BCE. The oracular use of the bones involved the interpretation of pattern of cracks which appeared on the bones after subjecting them to heat via a heated metal rod. The text on the bones records the interpretation of the oracle and the date of its production. We make this note since the use of inscriptions on bones is very specific to one area of China known to ancient Iranian (Persian) traders and where they have been found in great abundance.]

Palace Museum specialist Wu Yuhong determined that the text on one of the bones bore similarities to the text on the Babylonian Cyrus Cylinder. That bone’s text contained one in every twenty of the Cyrus text’s cuneiform characters in correct order. As he could not identify the text on the other bone, the Palace Museum sent images of the script on the two bones to the British Museum for further study.

At this juncture in the narrative, we need to turn our attention to the ongoing analysis of the (incomplete) text contained on the Cyrus Cylinder found in Babylon. In 2009, Wilfred Lambert, a retired professor from Birmingham University and Irving Finkel, Curator of Cuneiform Collections at the British Museum, had determined that the text on some tablet fragments in the British Museum's possession, were part of Cyrus' proclamation. These fragments had been uncovered by Hormuzd Rassam in Dailem (a site near but separate from Babylon). Shortly after this discovery by Lambert, Irving Finkel, Assistant Keeper, Department of the Middle East, similarly identified another tablet fragment. Perhaps, now aware of the possibility that the text on the Cyrus Cylinder was not unique to the Babylon temple where the cylinder had been found - that it might have been only one instance of Cyrus' proclamation being distributed throughout Cyrus' empire - we read that Finkel re-examined the images of the Chinese bones. He now determined that the text on the second bone that had not been previously been connected to Cyrus, was also part of Cyrus' proclamation.

Finkel communicated his finding to the Palace Museum and at the same time requested better images of the text. The request prompted Chinese Assyriologist Dr. Yushu Gong to make a set of rubbings of the bone inscriptions using black wax (on white paper). The resulting contrast provided a more distinct representation of the script on the bones than had the previous photographs.

Rubbing of the bone with cuneiform script attributed to the edict of Cyrus
Image credit: Palace Museum, China and currently at CAIS

Rubbing of the bone with cuneiform script attributed to the edict of Cyrus
Image credit: Palace Museum, China and currently at CAIS

Rubbing of the bone with cuneiform script attributed to the edict of Cyrus
Image credit: Palace Museum, China and currently at CAIS

At about the same time that the communication between Finkel and Gong had been taking place, the British Museum and the Iran Heritage Foundation cosponsored a two-day workshop on new discoveries concerning the Cyrus Cylinder to be held on June 23rd and 24th, 2010. Yushu Gong carried the cuneiform bone rubbings with him to the workshop in London where he presented them to the participants. The findings of the workshop were announced to a public information session on the evening of June 24th - by presenters Neil MacGregor, Irving Finkel, Matthew Stolper and John Curtis.

Irving Fenkel, Curator of
Cuneiform Collections at the British Museum
and a rubbing of a Chinese
cuneiform inscribed horse-bone before him.

Finkel had determined that both the script and the text on the Chinese bones were similar to, but not identical to those on the Cyrus Cylinder. The peculiarity of the text on the Chinese bones - with every twentieth word transcribed - was that they were linguistically correct. In addition, the individual wedge-like strokes of the cuneiform characters had a slightly different v-shaped top compared to the Babylonian standard. The shape of the top of the characters was instead similar to the form used by scribes in Persia. Finkel therefore stated, "The text used by the copier on the bones was not the Cyrus Cylinder, but another version, probably originally written in Persia, rather than Babylon."

If the writing on the bones was a forgery written by someone with no knowledge of the cuneiform script, one could reasonably expect a number of errors and even a made-up script. Regardless of the authenticity of the Chinese bones as a legitimately distributed copy of Cyrus' edict, whoever made the bone inscriptions would have had to have access to the Persian version of Cyrus' edict. This in itself is a further indication that Cyrus' edict was not limited to Babylon and for this reason alone, the text merits serious consideration as a copy of the edict that had been circulated throughout Cyrus' realm. That version could have been written not as a clay inscription, but on any substrate. It could have been carved on stone or written with ink on leather as well as parchment.

There wasn't sufficient time at the workshop for an in-depth analysis of the Chinese cuneiform bones. That would require further debate. Nevertheless, what was beginning to take hold was the concept that Cyrus' Cylinder was not just another foundation deposit - it was part of a larger distribution of Cyrus' edict. The corollary to this concept was that Cyrus had intended the edict to be a universal policy of governance throughout his empire. While there was some scepticism towards this concept expressed by a few of the workshop's participants, Finkel (whose opinion appears to have changed diametrically on this issue) believed that the evidence was "completely compelling."

Cyrus the Great & Cyrus Cylinder Series:
» Cyrus the Great (at Zoroastrian Heritage)
Cyrus the Great & Cyrus Cylinder Series:
» Cyrus the Great (at Zoroastrian Heritage)
» Cyrus the Great - His Religion & Inspiration
» Cyrus the Great - Pasargadae, Capital (at Zoroastrian Heritage)
» Cyrus the Great - Information Sources
» Cyrus the Great - Xenophon's Cyropaedia (at Zoroastrian Heritage)
» Cyrus the Great - Hebrew Bible Quotes
» Cyrus Cylinder
» Cyrus Cylinder & its Discoverer Hormuzd Rassam
» Cyrus Cylinder - its Remarkable Discovery
» Cyrus Cylinder - Contents (Eduljee)
» Cyrus Cylinder - Translation (Rogers)
» Cyrus Cylinder - Translation (Finkel)
» Cyrus' Edict & the Chinese Cuneiform Bones
» Cyrus Cylinder - Talk by Neil MacGregor