Cyrus decree roll found at Achmetha behind Ezra 6

This article describes an entity that is not directly attested as an extant recoverable roll; it is inferred from source-citation traces and should not be read as ordinary documentation of a surviving archive object.

Epistemic status

Draft article. Ezra reports a roll found at Achmetha, but the roll itself is not extant here and its external archival status is not independently proven.

Summary

Ezra 6:1-2 reports a search in the house of the rolls and a roll found at Achmetha containing a written record. Inferpedia treats this as the source surface behind the Cyrus decree notice.

What is being inferred

The inferred entity is the reported Achmetha roll or archive record containing Cyrus' temple decree.

What is attested

The text reports an archive search, identifies Achmetha as the find location, and describes a roll with a written record.

Why infer this entity

The source trace is unusually concrete: archive search, location, material object, and written record are all specified.

Evidence ledger

• E1, Ezra 6:1: primary trace for a house of rolls search.
• E2, Ezra 6:2: primary trace for the Achmetha find location.
• E3, Ezra 6:2: primary trace for a written record in a roll.

Counterarguments

The scene may be narrative legitimation of the temple rebuilding decree rather than a recoverable archive trail.

Confidence scores

Direct attestation: 62. Existence warrant: 82. Specificity: 74. Reconstruction dependence: 76. Counterevidence: 20.

What would change the score

Persian archival parallels, specialist Ezra commentary, or external evidence for the Cyrus decree tradition would change the score.