About Elam (Etymology & language)

Back to Elam, for some reason every time I wanted to do this task, it seemed so hard to me that I managed to find a way to postpone it. Well, not that it happened many times indeed.
The term Elam seems to come from the Sumerian and Akkadian elûm; meaning “to be high”, as far as I get it archeologists think it was because of the plateau located in southwest Iran and its high altitude, but a R. Zadok person has stressed that there was a period when they called any highlander from the Iranian plateau and its inhabitants as Elam. Interestingly the most popular way people know about the name Elam is not via the recovered cuneiforms, but it’s through bible.
It is good to know, however, that there were diverse groups of people with various languages living in the western plateau of Iran, and they did not identify themselves under the same name of Elamis, rather Sumerians and Akkadians called all these various groups by a same name, and as I found out we call all these different languages as Elamite because we do not have any indigenous terms for them.

Ref: The Archeology of Elam by: Daniel T. Potts.

Picture: Standing Lioness demon ca 3000-2800 B.c.; proto-elamite, Iran. Courtesy of: http://www.metmuseum.org/

Elamite period (3400 -550 BC)

Elamite period is generally divided into three distinct eras: Old, middle, late(neo-elamite). The elamites called their homeland Haltamti (highland), but akkadians called Elam. One point of view proposes that Elamites are the descendants of Elam, the eldest son of Shem of the Old Testament and hence the name1.
Many pieces of information regarding this historical era are missing yet. Indigenous sources are scarce and therefore, mostly we should rely on Mesopotemian sources. Although other civilizations existed before Elamites (I’ll discuss them in future posts), Elamite civilization seems to be a very influential one in the Persian plateau. As far as I have understood, according to old mesopotemian sources and their detailed map , in the late 3rd millennium B.C.E. Elam covered the whole Persian plateau (from Mesopotamia to the Kavîr-e Namak and Dašt-e Lût and from the Caspian (q.v.) to the Persian Gulf)2. However, today Elam is mainly known to have covered lowlands and highlands to the north and east of where Khuzestan lies in today’s Iran3.(see map)
Anyhow, we know that Elam’s cultural influence went much farther than the Persian plateau, reaching central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and southern shores of the Persian gulf2.
Elamites were always closely involved with their neighboring civilizations, including Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians. But it seems that this relationship was mostly based on wars rather than peaceful trading.
Susa has been the site of most discoveries related to this era. Earliest objects found display remarkable work of art which can not be found in Mesopotemia. However, excavations revealing objects belonging to later periods of this civilization show the influence of Mesopotemians along with those from Persian plateau (starting 3200 B.C.E.)
A very interesting point is that the proto-elamite script which has a striking resemblance to Indus script is still undeciphered, (at least based on what I learned from texts about elamites).
Elamites rulers had a federated governing system. In this system brothers succeeded the ruler, and sons only became rulers when there was no uncles left! This is specially true about the first centuries of their ruling, later we can see more sons succeeding their fathers. Also when the king died, in many instances apparently the queen became the next king’s wife (her brother in law’s wife). Next I will discuss each phase of elamite era.

1 http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Iranian_History/Contents/The_Elamites
2 The History of Elam. By: Francois Vallat http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/History/Elamite/elam_history.htm
3 Elamite Empire. By: Cyrus Shahmiri. http://www.iranchamber.com/history/elamite/elamite.php

Two examples of Elamite period's art

I am back again after a long time, these last few months I have been really busy with projects and exams, still have a big one coming, but I missed writing in this blog very much.
So this is a short post.
The mid elamite period is known for its fine art works. Two remaining examples are well known today. The first one, which is also the largest metal statue (3,860 lbs) found in middle east (?) is the statue of Queen Napirasu, the wife of the famous king Untash-Huban who made Choga-zambil. The statue is made out of bronze and copper, but unfortunately the head and left arm are damaged and missing. Today this statue is kept at Louvre, Paris. The figure is life-size, and shows the great skills of that era's metalworkers.

The statue has been cast in two parts, and then pinned together. Some say that she is shown in an attitude of prayer with her folded hands, but not everybody agrees. She is wearing four bracelets on her right wrist and a ring on her left ring finger. Eventhough the costume is pretty simple, the details are shown with delicacy. There is an inscription on the front of her skirt, which reads:


He who would seize my statue, who would smash it, who would destroy its inscription, who would erase my name, may he be smitten by the curse of [the gods], that his name shall become extinct, that his offspring be barren.... This is Napir-Asu's offering.


The statue is placed under protection of god Beltiya, Inshushinak, Napirisha and Kiririsha.

See larger image here

The second remaining art work is a bronze head of presumably an elamite ruler. This one is in Metropolitan museum, New York, today. With its severe expression, it seems to be a portrait of a real person. The hair is is held by sort of a turban. He has prominent facial features.

You can see the larger image here

The oldest animation of the world on a 5000 years old vase from burnt city

Photos from CHN photo agencey: photographer: Hossein Salmanzadeh

I have found the whole animation sequence movie, but I should find a way to upload it here.

Have a better look at choga-zambil!

Thanks to World Heritage Organization!!! This is great.

Tour 1

Tour 2

Tour 3

note 1:you should have QuickTime
note 2:Click and move your mouse, you'll see a 360 degree view.

Choga Zambil's pics

photos by Shahed Mohammadi

In the first pic you can see a model of what is left of Choga Zambil today. Second one is one of the things found there now kept in a museum. And yes the third one is a sample of an inscribed brick!

Kashan's Residences: Tabatabaei Residence pics

Tabatabaei Residence was built in mid 1800 (circa 1840) for another afluent family. This residence is now a protected Unesco world Heritage site too.