Elam (Persian: ایلام) is one of the first civilizations on record based in the far west and south-west of what is modern-day Iran (in the Ilam Province and the lowlands of Khuzestan). It lasted from around 2700 BC to 539 BC, coming after what is known as the Proto-Elamite period, which began around 3200 BC when Susa, the later capital of the Elamites began to receive influence from the cultures of the Iranian plateau to the east.
Ancient Elam lay to the east of Sumer and Akkad (modern-day Iraq). In the Old Elamite period, it consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a crucial role in the Persian Empire, especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it, when the Elamite language remained in official use. The Elamite period is considered a starting point for the History of Iran (although there were older civilizations in Iranian plateau like Mani civilization in Azarbaijan and Shar-e sookhteh in Zabol and other indigenous civilizations who lived in Iranian plateau but weren't as established as Elamites). Elamite language was not related to any Iranian languages
The high country of Elam was increasingly identified by its low-lying later capital, Susa. Geographers after Ptolemy called it Susiana. The Elamite civilization was primarily centered in the province of what is modern-day Khuzestan, however it did extended into the later province of Fars in prehistoric times. In fact, the modern provincial name Khuzestān is derived from the Old Persian root Hujiyā, meaning "Elam".
Elamite civilization grew up east of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in the watershed of the river Karun. In modern terms, Elam included more than Khuzestan; it was a combination of the lowlands and the immediate highland areas to the north and east. Some Elamite sites, however, are found well outside this area, spread out on the Iranian plateau; examples of Elamite remains farther north and east in Iran are Sialk in Isfahan province and Jiroft in Kerman Province. Elamite strength was based on an ability to hold these various areas together under a coordinated government that permitted the maximum interchange of the natural resources unique to each region. Traditionally, this was done through a federated governmental structure.
The history of Elam is conventionally divided into three periods, spanning more than two millennia. The period before the first Elamite period is known as the proto-Elamite period:
The Avan dynasty was partly contemporary with that of Sargon of Akkad, who not only subjected Elam, but attempted to make Akkadian the official language there. However, with the collapse of Akkad under Sargon's great-grandson, Shar-Kali-Sharri, Elam declared independence and threw off the Akkadian language.
The last Avan king, Kutik-Inshushinnak was roughly a contemporary of Ur-Nammu. From this time, Mesopotamian sources concerning Elam become more frequent, since the Mesopotamians had developed an interest in resources (such as wood, stone and metal) from the Iranian plateau, and military expeditions to the area became more common. Kutik-Inshushinnak conquered Susa and Anshan, and seems to have achieved some sort of political unity. A few years later, Shulgi of Ur retook the city of Susa and the surrounding region. During the first part of the rule of the Simashki dynasty, Elam was under intermittent attack from Mesopotamians and Gutians, alternating with periods of peace and diplomatic approaches. Shu-Sin of Ur, for example, gave one of his daughters in marriage to a prince of Anshan. But the power of the Sumerians was waning; Ibbi-Sin in the 21st century did not manage to penetrate far into Elam, and in 2004 BC, the Elamites, allied with the people of Susa and led by king Kindattu, the sixth king of Simashk, managed to sack Ur and lead Ibbi-Sin into captivity -- thus ending the third dynasty of Ur. However, the kings of ISIN, Successor state to Ur, did manage to drive the Elamites out of Ur, rebuild the city, and to return the statue of Nanna that the Elamites had plundered.
The succeeding dynasty, the Elam (c. 1970-1770 BC), also called "of the sukkalmahs" because of the title borne by its members, was contemporary with the Old Babylonian period in Mesopotamia. This period is confusing and difficult to reconstruct. It was apparently founded by Eparti I. During this time, Susa was under Elamite control, but Mesopotamian states such as Larsa continually tried to retake the city. Sirukdukh, the third ruler of this dynasty, entered various military coalitions to contain the rising power of Babylon. Kudur-mabug, apparently king of another Elamite state to the north of Susa, managed to install his son, Warad-Sin, on the throne of Larsa, and Warad-Sin's brother, Rim-Sin (thought by some to be the biblical Arioch), succeeded him and conquered much of Mesopotamia for Larsa before being overthrown by Hammurabi of Babylon.
The first and most notable Babylonian dynasty ruler was Siwe-Palar-Khuppak, who for some time was the most powerful person in the area, respectfully addressed as "Father" by Mesopotamian kings such as Zimri-Lim of Mari, and even Hammurabi. But Elamite influence in Mesopotamia did not last, and after a few years, Hammurabi established Babylonian dominance in Mesopotamia. Little is known about the latter part of this dynasty, since sources become again more sparse with the Kassite rule of Babylon.
The Kidinuids (c. 1500-1400) are a group of five rulers of uncertain affiliation. They are identified by their use of the older title, "king of Susa and of Anshan", and by calling themselves "servant of Kirwashir", an Elamite deity, thereby introducing the pantheon of the highlands to Susiana.
Of the Igehalkids (c. 1400-1210), ten rulers are known, and there were possibly more. Some of them married Kassite princesses. The Kassite king Kurigalzu II temporarily occupied Elam c. 1320 BC, and later (c. 1230) another Kassite king, Kashtiliash IV, fought Elam unsuccessfully. Kiddin-Khutran I of Elam repulsed the Kassites by defeating Enlil-nadin-shumi in 1224 and Adad-shuma-iddina around 1222-17. Under the Igehalkids, Akkadian inscriptions were rare, and Elamite highland gods became firmly established in Susa.
Under the Shutrukids (c. 1210-1100), the Elamite empire reached the height of its power. Shutruk-Nakhkhunte and his three sons, Kutir-Nakhkhunte II, Shilhak-In-Shushinak, and Khutelutush-In-Shushinak were capable of frequent military campaigns into Kassite Mesopotamia, and at the same time were exhibiting vigorous construction activity -- building and restoring luxurious temples in Susa and across their Empire. Shutruk-Nakhkhunte raided Akkad, Babylon, and Eshnunna, carrying home to Susa trophies like the statues of Marduk and Manishtushu, the Code of Hammurabi and the Stela of Naram-Sin.
In 1158 BC, Shutruk-Nakhkhunte defeated the Kassites permanently, killing the Kassite king of Babylon, Zababa-shuma-iddina, and replacing him with his eldest son, Kutir-Nakhkhunte, who held it no more than three years.
Kutir-Nakhkhunte's son Khutelutush-In-Shushinak was probably of an incestuous relation of Kutir-Nakhkhunte's with his own daughter, Nakhkhunte-utu. He ended up temporarily yielding Susa to the forces of Nebuchadnezzar I of Babylon, who returned the statue of Marduk. He fled to Anshan, but later returned to Susa, and his brother Shilhana-Hamru-Lagamar may have succeeded him as last king of the Shutrukid dynasty. Following Khutelutush-In-Shushinak, the power of the Elamite empire began to wane seriously, for with this ruler, Elam disappears into obscurity for more than three centuries.
The later Neo-Elamite period is characterized by a significant migration of Iranians to the Iranian plateau. Assyrian sources beginning around 800 BC distinguish the "powerful Medes", ie the actual Medes, and the "distant Medes" that would later enter history under their proper names, (Parthians, Sagartians, Margians, Bactrians, Sogdians etc). This pressure of immigrating Iranians pushed the Elamites of Anshan towards Susa, so that in the course of this period, Susiana became known as Elam, while Anshan and the Iranian plateau, the original home of the Elamites, were renamed Persia proper. The Elamite kings, apart from the last three, nevertheless continued to claim the title of "king of Anshan and Susa".
More details of an alliance of Babylonia and Elam against Assyria are tangible from the late 8th century BC. Khumbanigash (743-17) supported Merodach-baladan against Sargon II, apparently with limited success; while his successor, Shutruk-Nakhkhunte II (716-699), was routed by Sargon's troops during an expedition in 710, and another Elamite defeat by Sargon's troops is recorded for 708. The Assyrian victory was completed by Sargon's son Sennacherib, who dethroned Merodach-baladan and installed his own son Assur-nadin-shumi on the throne of Babylon.
Shuttir-Nakhkhunte was murdered by his brother Khallushu, who managed to capture Assur-nadin-shumi, and was in turn assassinated by Kutir-Nakhkhunte -- who succeeded him, but soon abdicated in favor of Khumma-Menanu III (692-89). Khumma-Menanu recruited a new army to help the Babylonians against the Assyrians at the battle of Halule in 691 BC. The battle was indecisive, or at least both sides claimed the victory in their annals, but Babylon fell to the Assyrians only two years later. The reigns of Khumma-Khaldash I (688-81) and Khumma-Khaldash II (680-75) saw a deterioration of Elamite-Babylonian relations, and both of them raided Sippar. Urtaku (674-64) for some time maintained good relations with Assurbanipal (668-27), who sent wheat to Susiana during a famine. But these friendly relations were only temporary, and Urtaku died during another Elamite attack on Mesopotamia.
His successor Tempti-Khumma-In-Shushinak (664-53) was counter-attacked by Assurbanipal, and was killed following the battle of the Ulaļ in 653 BC; and Elam was occupied by the Assyrians. During a brief respite provided by the civil war between Assurbanipal and his brother Shamash-shum-ukin, the Elamites too indulged in fighting among themselves, so weakening the Elamite kingdom that in 646 BC Assurbanipal devastated Susiana with ease, and sacked Susa. A succession of brief reigns continued in Elam from 651 to 640, each of them ended either due to usurpation, or because of capture of their king by the Assyrians. In this manner, the last Elamite king, Khumma-Khaldash III, was captured in 640 BC by Ashurbanipal, who devastated the country.
In a tablet unearthed in 1854 by Henry Austin Layard, Ashurbanipal boasts of the destruction he had wrought:
Elamite is unrelated to the neighboring Semitic, Sumerian and Indo-European languages. It was written in a cuneiform adapted from Akkadian script, although the very earliest documents were written in the quite different "Linear Elamite" script. This seems to have developed from an even earlier writing known as "proto-Elamite", but scholars are not unanimous on whether or not this script was used to write Elamite or another language, and it has not yet been deciphered.
Some linguists believe Elamite may be related to the living Dravidian languages (of southern India, and Brahui in Pakistan). The hypothesized family of Elamo-Dravidian languages may further prove to be connected with the Indus Valley Civilization somewhat to the East, possibly corresponding to Meluhha in Sumerian records. However, such links are at best conjectural, and Harappan pictographs have also yet to be deciphered.
Several stages of the language are attested; the earliest date back to the third millennium BC, the latest to the Achaemenid Empire.
The Elamite language may have survived as late as the early Islamic period. Ibn al-Nadim among other Arab medieval historians, for instance, wrote that "The Iranian languages are Fahlavi (Pahlavi), Dari, Khuzi, Persian and Suryani", and Ibn Moqaffa noted that Khuzi was the unofficial language of the royalty of Persia, "Khuz" being the corrupted name for Elam. See Origin of the name Khuzestan for details.
According to the editors of Persians, Masters of Empire: "The Elamites, fierce rivals of the Babylonians, were precursors of the royal Persians" (ISBN 0-80949104-4). This view is widely accepted today, as experts unanimously recognize the Elamites to have "absorbed Iranian influences in both structure and vocabulary" by 500 BC. (Encyclopedia Iranica, Columbia University)
The Elamite civilization's originality, coupled with studies carried out at Elamite sites well spread out over the Iranian plateau, have led modern historians to conclude that "The Elamites are the founders of the first Iranian empire in the geographic sense". (Elton Daniel, The History of Iran, p. 26)
Most experts go even further and establish a clear chain of cultural continuity between the Elamites and later dynasties of Iran. Elamologist DT Potts verifies this in writing, "There is much evidence, both archaeological and literary/epigraphic, to suggest that the rise of the Persian empire witnessed the fusion of Elamite and Persian elements already present in highland Fars". (The Archaeology of Elam: Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State, Cambridge World Archaeology, Chap 9 Introduction.).
Thus, not only was "Elam absorbed into the new empire" (Encyclopedia Iranica, Columbia University), becoming part of the millennia old imperial heritage of Iran, but the Elamite civilization is now recognized to be "the earliest civilization of Persia", in the words of Sir Percy Sykes. (A History of Persia, p38, ISBN 0415326788).