The "Cyrus Cylinder " pictured below and linked above is an archaeological artefact discovered in 1879. It contains the proclamation of Cyrus the Great, king of Persia declaring that all enslaved peoples in his kingdom could return to their homeland and worship their gods. Jerusalem had been besieged seventy years earlier by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon and all able bodied people were carried off and enslaved in Babylon. When Babylon was later conquered by the Medes and Persians, Cyrus the Great had made a proclamation that all enslaved people's could return to their homeland and worship their gods. This cylinder normally resides in the British museum and lives under a glass dome.In the book of Daniel chapter 9 there is a prophecy that gives the exact date of the coming of the Messiah measured in weeks from the date of Cyrus' proclamation. It is marked in the adjacent Bible in the book of Daniel chapter 9