Elam in the Iron Age

Abstract

Abstract The history of southwestern Iran, that is “Elam,” in the first half of the first millennium bc is still very elusive. However, it is clear that major developments took place in this period that changed the balance of power and eventually led to the rise of the Persian Empire in the sixth century bc. This chapter discusses the available sources for Neo-Elamite history (royal and other official inscriptions, letters, and administrative documents; archaeological and iconographical remains; as well as Mesopotamian texts shedding light on Elam) from both a diachronic and a synchronic perspective, in order to illustrate the network of regional and international relations within which these changes occurred. In doing so, previously existing models of dividing the history of the Neo-Elamite period into two or three phases are abandoned in favor of a more flexible approach that allows for the treatment of certain aspects of Elamite history more coherently, including Elamite relations with Assyria, Babylonia, and the Persians. In addition, the traditional numbering of the names of Elamite rulers (“I,” “II,” etc.) is called into question by highlighting the considerable gaps that plague the existing knowledge of the early Elamite period, and new possibilities for reconciling the list of rulers attested in the Babylonian chronicles and Assyrian sources with those known from contemporary royal inscriptions are suggested.