Kingdoms of the Eastern Near East

The city states of Sumer formed one of the first great civilisations in human history (see feature link). This Near Eastern civilisation emerged a little way ahead of that of Africa's ancient Egypt, and up to a millennium before that of the Indus Valley culture.

Early civilisation here emerged during the Pottery Neolithic, with its Neolithic Farmer practices being spread far and wide. Southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and the western edge of Iran) was subjected to permanent settlement and, by the late fourth millennium BC, Sumer was divided into approximately a dozen city states, by which time other regions were emerging as population centres in their own right, notably on Sumer's eastern flank.

Elam was one of the oldest named regions in history, being located in one of the oldest civilised areas in the world (see feature link). With a small but important selection of city states at its core it also provided history with one of its longest-surviving series of states.

For a good deal of its independent history Elam was more a land of city states in the style of Sumer, and far less often a unified state which implacably opposed Sumer (a listing of many of its cities and ruling dynasties is available via the index link, right). Its lands were situated in south-western Iran, on the east (left) bank of the Tigris and opposite modern Kuwait. It included Iraq's city of Basrah and the northern part of the Persian Gulf. Today this area largely falls within the Khuzestan and Ilam provinces, the latter of which preserves Elam's name.

It took some time here to assimilate Sumer's groundbreaking inventions. Its first city state kingdom arose by around 2700 BC, although from obscure origins (and see feature link). It was located on an alluvial plain below the Zagros mountains, and travel between the two regions could be difficult due to a string of large marshes which lay in the way. The nearest access route was in the Zagros foothills to circle the marshes, but a preferred route was via Der and the Diyala river basin.

Elam achieved less than its advanced neighbours, and imported much of what it needed. From the few surviving records, the Elamite language seemingly bore no relation to any others, whether Semitic, Sumerian or Indo-European. Instead it formed part of a pre-Indo-European group called Elamo-Dravidian which reached into India. It was a linguistic isolate which was later replaced by the Farsi of the Parsua.

Elamite records poorly detail local events, with large areas of its history being almost totally unknown except through Sumerian records. The form of the kingdom's name, 'Elam' is generally taken to mean 'highland'. It is Akkadian (and this survived via Akkadian to reach Hebrew).

In the original Elamite form it seems to have been Haltamtu or Haltamti, although this was not written down until the eighteenth century BC. It could have been inherited from the Akkadian version and was simply accepted through centuries of familiarity, although a reverse argument also exists which classes it as an Elamite name which was adopted into Akkadian.

Elam's four major cities during the 'Early Dynastic' period in the early and middle third millennium BC were Awan, Anshan, Simash, and the 'mother city' of Susa which was also the Persian-era capital. Rulers in these cities practised kingship by matrilineal descent, being referred to as 'son of a sister'.

Sometimes those cities had rival kingships, sometimes they seemed to combine into one kingdom or perhaps acted as a loosely-joined coalition. Sometimes they even attacked and/or invaded one another's territories. Potentially also included at various times in various events were smaller (and often entirely obscure) cities or groups which included Adamdun, Aratta, Harshi, Itnigi, Sabum, Shig(i)rish, Urua, Zabshali, and Zitanu.

Trade routes reached overland towards the eastern Iran of the Jiroft and Helmand cultures and into the lands of the Indus Valley civilisation which lay at the eastern extent of this broad trading network. Elam's rise enabled better trading links across the entire region, and encouraged the rise of more cities across the plateau. The BMAC civilisation along the Oxus in Central Asia was also part of this network.

The Old Testament claims the personification of Elam as a son of Shem, ancestor of the Israelites, and founder figure of the region which bears his name. The Elamites, however, bore no relation to Semitic-speakers like the Israelites. They did not disappear with the fall of Elam to a major Assyrian campaign of destruction in the seventh century BC, but instead survived as the Elymaeans.

Near East Kingdoms

Ancient Eastern Near East

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