Copied from FB World Ancient History Portal
Elam, located in the region of the modern-day provinces of Ilam and Khuzestan in Iran. Elam (3200 BC – 539 BC),
Cuneiform Elamite: haltamti (those of the high country, highlands); Sumerian: Elam; Akkadian: Elamtu; Hebrew: עֵילָם ʿēlām; Old Persian: Hūja meaning Susa/Elam, Middle Persian: Hūz or Susiana.
In modern Elam is called Persian: خوز ,Xuz, compounded with the toponymic suffix -stån or place, (known as Susiana, derived from its capital Susa, far west and southwest of modern-day Iran.
Khuzestan and Ilam Province as well as a small part of southern Iraq. Susa is one of the oldest-known settlements of Iran and the world. Mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures (Bible): claim from Genesis 10:22 that the land was named for Elam, son of Shem, son of Noah has no support outside of the Biblical narrative.
Women’s equality was recognized as was the legitimacy of differing religious beliefs, and the cultures of other civilizations were respected. Women in Elamite culture are depicted in artwork as the equals of men. Reliefs show women and men at the same size and in an equal relationship with each other, which is how ancient artists rendered the concept of equality.
Egyptian art consistently emphasizes the status of a given figure in a piece by size. Among the best examples of this is the statue of the queen Napirasu, wife of Untash-Napirisha, which depicts the queen in the same royal attire as a male monarch. Cylinder seals also depict male and female figures, usually husband and wife, as equals.
#Proto-Elamite: c. 3200 – c. 2700 BC (Proto-Elamite script in Susa).
#Old Elamite period: c. 2700 – c. 1500 BC (earliest documents until the Sukkalmah Dynasty.
#Middle Elamite period: c. 1500 – c. 1100 BC (Anzanite dynasty until the Babylonian invasion of Susa)
#Neo-Elamite period: c. 1100 – 540 BC (characterized Assyrian and Median influence. 539 BC marks the beginning of the Achaemenid period). Elymais, was taken by the Sassanian Empire in 224 CE.
The Elamite linear script, remains undeciphered. Their language has no known relatives (therefore is designated a language isolate). When Elam came into closer contact with Sumer and, later, with Akkad, it adopted cuneiform script for its records and correspondence.
The first war in recorded history. Around 2700 BCE, the Sumerian king Enemebaragesi of the city-state of Kish launched a campaign against Elam. Ceramics, jewelry, impressions, and metalwork of the Proto-Elamite Period corresponds to no other civilization’s in the region nor, in fact, in the world of that era. Scholars have noted how other civilizations of the time – Sumerian, Akkadian, Egyptian, etc. – prioritized human figures in their art or anthropomorphized animals as with the Egyptian practice of combining, say, the head of a cat with the body of a woman to depict the Goddess Bastet, while the Elamites made animals the focus of their art.
The Elamites built one of the most ancient cities in world history, Susa, which dates from c. 4200 BCE. Archaeological evidence confirms human habitation of the site dating to c. 7000 BCE with continuous settlement dating to 4395 BCE before the community built the city. It became one of the capitals of the Achaemenid Empire and remained an important center for trade, commerce, industry, and the arts until it was destroyed by the Mongol Invasion of 1218 CE.
The Elamite pantheon consisted of 200 separate deities, presided over by the supreme God Napirisha (Lord of the Earth and People) who seem to have been worshipped to greater or lesser degrees in different areas of Elam. The Elamites also incorporated Mesopotamian deities – particularly Sumerian – into their pantheon and so also worshipped Ea, Enki, Ninhursag, Shamash, and others.
There is no evidence, however, of compulsory worship imposed by a ruling house on the people, not even during the Middle Elamite Period when the rulers pursued a policy of “elamization” of the people and encouraged a standard of culture and religion.
No records exist of religious strife, persecution, or any social unrest caused by differing modes of worship or focus on a single deity. This kind of tolerance would find full expression in the greatest Elamite building project still extant today. The temple complex of Dur-Untash.Dur-Untash, the Great Temple, the great Untash-Napirisha of the Igihalkid Dynasty (c. 1400 – c. 1200 BCE) during the Middle Elamite Period who built the ziggurat and temple complex of Dur-Untash (also known as Chogha Zanbil).
Dur-Untash translates as “Fortress of Untash” or “City of Untash”, in Assyrian while the modern name for the site – Chogha Zanbil – translates as “basket mound” owing to its appearance as an upside-down basket.
The Elamites’ own religious beliefs, deities, and rituals seem to have influenced the Early Iranian Religion of the region prior to the rise of Zoroastrianism. The concept of sacred spaces on high ground was an aspect of both the Early Iranian Religion and Zoroastrianism as were deities who personified cosmic or natural powers. Contributing to its prominence was the fact that it controlled the flow of Iranian tin to the west after the end of [the river system of] Karum-Kanesh.
This crucial ingredient for bronze production reached the Mediterranean from Elam via Mari. Elam was also in close contact with Dilmun in the Persian Gulf, so it may have monopolized access to other foreign resources and routes as well.
Persians appropriated Elamite culture for their own uses and, in doing so, preserved them.
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Some comments on the post dated 8th January 2022
Mutlu Keçeli In the text it says “The Elamite linear script, remains undeciphered. Their language has no known relatives (therefore is designated a language isolate).” This is not true. it is an agglutinative language like sumerian language. Therefore it is asiatic, turanic language. (Sir henry rawlinson says that). Is it possible to stay isolated if you are in the middle of the world of that time?
Brittania Houmarek All these names are common Pacific languages! Their arrangements are strangely the same way our seafarers would organize a pathway history of discovery and establishment.Elam means memorable or to remember in our language. Elameto, Elamalam for religious work etc.. Ur as we use for Pillars of houses and metaphorical representation of our ancient chiefdom it’s also a word we use for expeditions on long voyages as was given to NaUru and Urak, Uren, Ureng, Uruo, Urukeang etc.. Sumer for grant opening which is weird cus it’s coincidentally right at the mouth of the channel over Ur a mark for arrival or landing before it’s emphasized into a Pillar of Anu (UrAnus).
