Elam in the Late Bronze Age

Abstract

From the emergence of the first urban forms of society in the fourth millennium BC to the Achaemenid era, the kingdom of Elam in southwestern Iran played a significant role in the political and cultural landscape of the Middle East. After a period of political dominance of Mesopotamia over Elam in the Ur III period, the country developed into one of the wider region’s most important political and economic powers in the course of the second millennium BC. This development reached its climax in the Late Bronze Age during the so-called Middle Elamite period, when Elam’s political and economic expansion transformed the regional power structures. Such change is characterized by the concentration of power in the person of the king, whose office combined the highest secular position with religious authority. The king’s access and control over resources is reflected by the significant increase in construction activities and the foundation of new settlements, while the demand for further resources resulted in increasing military activities and wars of expansion, which led to the conquest of Mesopotamia in the last phase of the Middle Elamite period. This chapter discusses the current state of understanding of Elam’s chronology and history based on archaeological data and written sources and discusses key aspects of society, state administration, and religious practices.