“Nonetheless, no conqueror had ever spoken like this before, so to that extent it is the first step toward a declaration of human rights.”

That we know of.  Let’s not go assuming that we have extensive knowledge of the ancient world when we actually don’t.  This is the earliest such proclamation of which we are aware.

In the Bible’s 2 Chronicles 36:23, which was probably composed between 350 and 300 B.C., we are told: “Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem. . .” That was written some 200 years after the proclamation by Cyrus…”

Says who? Christian and Jewish tradition long held that the writer of 2 Chronicles lived in the 5th century B.C., at the same time or not long after the events he describes.  Liberal “scholarship” in the early 20th century argued that it was written at a later date, but has never been able to provide coherent support for that assertion.

The most significant thing about this Cyrus seal is that it provides contemporaneous corroboration of the account in 2 Chronicles 36 - we can accept it as a reliable account of the actual edict issued by Cyrus the Great to the Jews in regard to their temple, in tandem with similar edicts issued to a number of other ethnic groups within the Persian Empire.

Once again, the historicity of the Bible is vindicated.  In the long run, it always is.