Near East Kingdoms

Ellipi (Zagros Mountain People) (Sumer)

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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.

It developed out of the end of the Pottery Neolithic across the Fertile Crescent, a period which had seen Neolithic Farmer practices spread far and wide across the Near East and beyond. Southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and the western edge of Iran) was subjected to permanent settlement, initially in the form of pastoralists but soon as farmers too.

By the late fourth millennium BC, Sumer was divided into approximately a dozen independent city states which used local canals and boundary stones to mark their borders. Many of the smaller cities emerged in two broad waves, in the mid-third millennium BC and at the start of the second millennium BC. One of these was the small kingdom of Ellipi.

This first millennium BC state was located roughly in Luristan in the central Zagros mountain region, to the immediate west of Elam and apparently also bordering the emerging state of Media. Its people were long-established locals, with a clear distinction being made between them and the growing number of Indo-Iranians in the Zagros.

Dalta of the late eighth century BC is noted for his apparent alliance with several tribal chiefs of the early Parsua. His state was classed as 'half-Iranised' (by Diakonoff in 1991, as per Potts, 1999), which clearly refers to a growing Indo-Iranian population here, both Medians and Parsua.

Ellipi emerged around the start of the first millennium BC, but nothing is known of that emergence. It simply pops into the historical record in the ninth century BC, usually as a border zone region between the warring Assyrians and Elamites.

Its area of influence included the mountain valleys to the north-east of Der, perhaps extending as far as modern Nihavend. Slightly to its north were remnants of the Gutians and Kassites, while the Lullubi guarded the northern approaches of the main commercial route.

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(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 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 The Archaeology of Mesopotamia, S Lloyd (Revised Ed, London, 1984), from History of the Ancient Near East c.3000-323 BC, Marc van der Mieroop (Blackwell Publishing, 2004, 2007), from The Archaeology of Elam, D T Potts (Cambridge University Press, 1999), from History of Early Iran, George C Cameron (University of Chicago Press, 1936), and from External Links: Ancient Worlds, and Evolution of Sumerian kingship (Ancient World Magazine), and Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary Project (Published between 2003-2021, part of the Babylonian section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology), and the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature.)

c.883 - 824 BC

During their reigns in the ninth century BC, both Assurnasirpal II and Shalmaneser III conduct Assyrian campaigns into the northern Zagros and east Tigridian zone, attacking regions such as Allabria, Andia, Ellipi, Mada (the Indo-Iranian version of 'Media'), Manna (likely Mannaeans), Namri, Parsua, and Zamua (a region which seemingly contains the rebellious Lullubi).

It was Ashurnasirpal II who undertook the expansion and recovery of Assyria following general social collapse and a short dark page period between about 1200-900 BC

724 - 722 BC

Two years after conquering Edom, Shalmaneser V is the last name on the Assyrian King List, which is composed around this time. He is dethroned by a coup d'etat headed by Sargon II who rebuilds a stronger and more belligerent Assyria.

? - c.710 BC

Ruler of Ellipi. Died, triggering a succession dispute.

c.715 BC

Having been an enemy of Sargon's Assyrian empire from its formation around 722 BC, Dalta of Ellipi (or Talta in older English-language translations of his name) switches his allegiance and pays tribute in Sargon's eighth year, around 715 BC. The increasing regional presence of militarily-proficient Median tribes is continually destabilising Assyrian attempts at control in the Zagros, with Ellipi's changing allegiance probably part of this process.

c.714 BC

Dalta's switching of allegiance seems to have been fortunately timed. In the ninth year of Sargon's reign he has to be rescued by Assyrian troops from an attempted coup. Whilst there they also subdue Bait Ili on Ellipi's border, a Median tribal province and one of several which is brought to heel.

The Zagros Mountain range provided the Medes with their home, but it was also the Assyrian gateway into Iran, one which was used in later attacks on the Indo-European Persians and Medes

c.710 BC

In the thirteenth year of the reign of Sargon II of Assyria, Shutruk-Nahhunte II of the Neo-Elamite kingdom is once more involved in Assyrian politics even though his anti-Assyrian alliance with the Chaldeans seems to have broken down.

This time his involvement is prompted by the death of Dalta of Ellipi. Apparently not having any children of his own, that death triggers a power struggle between his nephews, Nibe and Ishpabara (the latter with an Indo-Iranian name, revealing the location's mixed population). Nibe turns for support to Shutruk-Nahhunte while Ishpabara appeals to Sargon.

According to Sargon's annals, the Elamite king sends four thousand five hundred bowmen to aid Nibe, who has taken refuge in the fortress of Marubistu. An Assyrian army is sent to aid Ishpabara and it is victorious.

Following the climate-change-induced collapse of indigenous civilisations and cultures in Iran and Central Asia between about 2200-1700 BC, Indo-Iranian groups gradually migrated southwards to form two regions - Tūr (yellow) and Ariana (white), with westward migrants forming the early Parsua kingdom (lime green), and Indo-Aryans entering India (green) (click or tap on map to view full sized)

c.710 - ? BC

Nephew, and new ruler of Ellipi with Assyrian support.

c.702? BC

Marduk-apla-iddina II (Merodach-Baladan) of Babylon has refused to cease resisting Assyria, first under Sargon and now under Sennacherib. However, before the Assyrian king marches on Babylon to drive him out for one final time, he has to deal with Ishpabara of Ellipi who has switched allegiances to turn against Assyria.

692/691 BC

Khumma-Menanu of Elam leads a coalition of states against Assyrian King Sennacherib at the Battle of Halule on the Tigris. With him is Babylon, Ellipi, and the state of Anshan which seems able to be able to call on the Parsua.

Anshan has often - but not always - been part of Elam itself, but it may be ruled by a subsidiary line at this time. The location of the battle suggests a march by the allies towards the heart of Assyrian-dominated territory.

The outcome is not decisive, and does not prevent Sennacherib from devastating Babylon itself following a fifteen month-long siege, although it does protect Elam. Sippar also suffers Sennacherib's wrath for having provided a base for the Elamites. The temple of Annunitu is destroyed and the cult statue of Shamash is taken away along with other Babylonian deities.

Ashurbanipal is illustrated during a lion hunt, almost a ritual in the Assyrian royal search for order amidst the seemingly everyday chaos of life

679 BC

Assyria king, Esarhaddon, conducts a campaign against the Cimmerians, defeating them and their leader, Teuspa, but still failing to pacify the region. In the same year Esarhaddon's troops also fight a war in Hilakku (Khilakku).

A few years later they punish the Anatolian prince of Kundu (Cyinda) and Sissu (Sisium, modern Sis), who has allied himself with Phoenician rebels against Assyrian rule. The regions to the north of the Cilician plain repeatedly cause trouble for Assyria.

However, trouble is also brewing in the Zagros mountains. The non-Iranian peoples of the upper valleys of the Zagros are disappearing under progressive absorption by the dominant Medes and smaller Indo-Iranian groups such as early Parsua elements.

Those too are gradually being absorbed into the Median collective while small kingdoms such as Ellipi and Harhar are disappearing from the historical record. Even the names of petty rulers who retain independence show a progressive process of medisation.

The year 652 BC marked the apogee of Cimmerian power with their conquest of the kingdom of Lydia, but their supremacy would last only another eleven or so years before defeat and total eclipse