Near East Kingdoms

Proto-Elamite Period (Elam) (Western Iran)

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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.

Elam was one of the oldest named regions in history, being located in one of the oldest civilised areas in the world, now within Iran (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 states, or at least a series of states which, for outsiders, can barely be distinguished apart from one another.

It neighboured Sumer along that region's eastern flank, but it took some time to assimilate Sumer's groundbreaking social, agricultural, and administrative inventions. Elam's first city state kingdom arose by around 2700 BC, following a phase in which the urbanite progression of the Uruk IV period was taken on board, but a rival early script had emerged, generally termed 'Proto-Elamite'.

The Elamite language 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 are also extremely sparse in recording local events, and large areas of its history are almost totally unknown except through Sumerian records. Early settlements are known on the alluvial plain below the Zagros mountains, today's Khuzestan province of Iran. These include a cluster of small cities around Susa, such as Awan (location unknown), Chogha Mish and, later, Kabnak and Untash-Napirisha.

Farther east were cities in the rugged highlands such as Anshan, Aratta (possibly, if it even existed), and the neighbouring small state of Marhashi. The latter was the first city or state to be reached on the Iranian plateau. Beyond that was a network of small trading towns and cities which led all the way to the Indus Valley civilisation at the network's eastern extent. The BMAC civilisation on the Oxus in Central Asia would also be part of this network when it appeared late in the third millennium BC.

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City, Gwendolyn Leick (Penguin Books, 2001), from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), from The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character, Samuel Noah Kramer ('List 1' of Sumerian rulers, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1963), from Historical Atlas of the Ancient World, 4,000,000 to 500 BC, John Heywood (Barnes & Noble, 2000), from The Ancient Near East, c.3000-330 BC, Amélie Kuhrt (Routledge, 2000, Vol I & II), from Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, Michael Road (Facts on File, 2000), from Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Enrico Ascalone (Dictionaries of Civilizations 1, University of California Press, 2007), from History of the Ancient Near East c.3000-323 BC, Marc van der Mieroop (Blackwell Publishing, 2004, 2007), from Mesopotamia, Chris Scarre (Ed, Past Worlds - The Times Atlas of Archaeology, Guild Publishing, London 1989), from The Archaeology of Elam, D T Potts (Cambridge University Press, 1999), from The Elamite World, Javier Álvarez-Mon, Gian Pietro Basello, & Yasmina Wick (Eds, Routledge, 2018), and from External Links: Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, and Archaeology.org.)

c.7000 BC

From about this period onwards the first traces of civilisation appear in the Elamite region of what today is western Iran. Later to be a great regional city, Susa now shows traces of early settlement. The nearby settlement at Chogha Mish is initially more advanced, however.

Little contact of note exists with western areas which are about to start the Pottery Neolithic. Settlement in the adjacent Sumer does not really take off for a further two or three millennia, after irrigation techniques have been perfected. Occupation may possibly be dominated by an Elamite highlands-originated population of PPNB agriculturalists.

Established around 7000 BC, about the same time as Susa, the city of Chogha Mish sat on the same alluvial plain in south-western Iran and was initially more advanced until the later fourth millennium BC at least

c.3900 BC

Susa emerges as an important regional centre at the start of the Uruk IV period in Sumer. This period lasts between about 3900-3100 BC, during which the city of Uruk flourishes as the only real urban centre in Sumer. It sits at the heart of a great trading and cultural centre.

Susa thoroughly absorbs Sumer's material culture and soon begins using it with an Elamite twist. In fact, it is likely that this cultural infusion also comes with an Uruk population, as with many Mesopotamian locations. This apparently enthusiastic embracing of urban construction is carried far and wide across much of the Near East at this time.

The city of Susa grows in size, perhaps at the cost of denuding surrounding villages of their populations, and almost certainly denuding Chogha Mish of its population. Susa's reconstruction would seem to be managed and planned, perhaps even as a more viable replacement for the nearby abandoned towns and villages.

The bevelled-rim bowl begins appearing across a wide geographical area in Iran. Examples are later discovered as far afield as coastal Pakistan (within the Indus Valley civilisation) and at Miri Qalat near the Gulf of Oman. In the Elamite highlands the city of Anshan also now emerges as a rival urban centre, having been occupied for at least a couple of centuries.

c.3100 - 2700 BC

The Uruk IV influence suddenly fades around 3100 BC (or 3200 BC in some modern sources) for reasons unknown. Older traditions re-emerge in places which had previously taken on board Uruk influences. The Uruk-inspired centre at Susa in Elam seems to be taken over by immigrants from the Zagros mountains (or at least it witnesses an indigenous return to pre-Uruk political and cultural controls).

A new political entity emerges which discards Uruk IV cuneiform and language to replace it with 'Proto-Elamite' language, a precursor to the usage of all later Elamite city states. This ends the spirit of regional unity which previously seemed to predominate in the surrounding villages and towns, such as Abu Fanduweh, Chogha Mish, and Tepe Sharafabad.

The proto-Elamite period witnesses the development of a semi-pictographic writing system for the east. Susa begins to be influenced by the cultures of the Iranian plateau to the east (see feature link), and it dominates the lowlands to the west of the Zagros mountains. But it also cuts off these access points from post-Uruk IV Sumer, enforcing new trading connections which go through Susa itself.

Approximately four hundred kilometres to the south in the modern province of Fars, the city of Anshan becomes prominent and expands in size, dominating the highlands of the southern mountain range.

c.2700 BC

Curiously, and perhaps not coincidentally, it is about this time that the lands of the Elamites and even those to the east of it, become more hostile to Sumer's kings. The reign of Enmerkar of the 'First Dynasty' city of Uruk is notable for an expedition against Aratta.

The goddess Inanna resides in Aratta, but Enmerkar apparently pleases her more than does the lord of Aratta who is only named once, and she wishes to move to Uruk. This request seemingly conflicts with the recent establishment of the temple of Eanna under Meskiaggasher, but may in fact be part of the same process of establishment within Uruk.

This point marks the transition into the 'Old Elamite Period'. This is the beginning of the historical era in Elam and more intense relations with the flourishing Sumerian city states. Three dynasties of kings rule areas of Elam, with the last of them forming a short-lived empire.