Events Strongly supported
The Cyrus Cylinder and the Return from Exile
Cyrus the Great's own 539 BC inscription, the Cyrus Cylinder, records his bloodless capture of Babylon and describes returning displaced peoples and their gods to their sanctuaries — the kind of decree Ezra 1 says freed the Judean exiles to rebuild the Lord's house. The Cylinder's own list of restored places names Mesopotamian and Elamite cities; the Jerusalem-specific decree is Ezra's own record. The peaceful capture of Babylon is independently confirmed by a second Babylonian text, the Nabonidus Chronicle.
539 BC – 538 BC
