The Babylonia–Elam Connections in the Chaldaean and Achaemenid Periods (Part Two) 1

Abstract

The paper discusses the political and economic connections between Babylonia and elam during the periods of the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid empires (626–539 and 538–332 BCe respectively). it is based on both published and unpublished sources in Neo-/late-Babylonian as well as in Neo-elamite and Royal Achaemenid elamite. These are mostly implicit, as pertinent chronicles and royal inscriptions are rare. Therefore, the evidence for political history is minimal whereas the socioeconomic information is much more detailed. Nevertheless, even this information is chronologically uneven as most of it refers to the Chaldaean and early Achaemenid period with very few sources about the late Achaemenid period (483–332 BCe). An appendix is devoted to workmen from upper Mesopotamia and Syria ('Assyrians') in elam including Arabians. They were—at least partly—subjects of the Neo-Babylonian empire before its demise.