Susa was an ancient city in the lower Zagros Mountains about 250 km (160 mi) east of the Tigris, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers in Iran. One of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East, Susa served as the capital of Elam and the Achaemenid Empire, and remained a strategic centre during the Parthian and Sasanian periods.
Elam was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of what is now Khuzestan and Ilam Province as well as a small part of southern Iraq. The modern name Elam stems from the Sumerian transliteration elam(a), along with the later Akkadian elamtu, and the Elamite haltamti. Elamite states were among the leading political forces of the Ancient Near East. In classical literature, Elam was also known as Susiana, a name derived from its capital Susa.
Chogha Zanbil is an ancient Elamite complex in the Khuzestan province of Iran. It is one of the few existing ziggurats outside Mesopotamia. It lies approximately 30 km (19 mi) southeast of Susa and 80 km (50 mi) north of Ahvaz.
Pinikir, also known as Pinigir, Pirengir and Parakaras, was an Ancient Near Eastern astral goddess who originates in Elamite religious beliefs. While she is only infrequently attested in Elamite documents, she achieved a degree of prominence in Hurrian religion. Due to her presence in pantheons of many parts of the Ancient Near East, from Anatolia to Iran, modern researchers refer to her as a "cosmopolitan deity."
Nahhunte was the Elamite sun god. While the evidence for the existence of temples dedicated to him and regular offerings is sparse, he is commonly attested in theophoric names, including these of members of Elamite royal families.
Inshushinak was the tutelary god of the city of Susa in Elam. His name has a Sumerian etymology, and can be translated as lord of Susa. He was associated with kingship, and as a result appears in the names and epithets of multiple Elamite rulers. In Susa he was the main god of the local pantheon, though his status in other parts of Elam might have been different. He was also connected with justice and the underworld. His iconography is uncertain, though it is possible snakes were his symbolic animals. Two Mesopotamian deities incorporated into Elamite tradition, Lagamal and Ishmekarab, were regarded as his assistants. He was chiefly worshiped in Susa, where multiple temples dedicated to him existed. Attestations from other Elamite cities are less common. He is also attested in Mesopotamian sources, where he could be recognized as an underworld deity or as an equivalent of Ninurta. He plays a role in the so-called Susa Funerary Texts, which despite being found in Susa were written in Akkadian and might contain instructions for the dead arriving in the underworld.
Napir-Asu was an Elamite queen, who was the wife of King Untash-Napirisha. A statue of her by the bronzeworkers of Susa is one of the finest examples of bronze metal-working to be discovered.
Burna-Buriaš II, rendered in cuneiform as Bur-na- or Bur-ra-Bu-ri-ia-aš in royal inscriptions and letters, and meaning servant or protégé of the Lord of the lands in the Kassite language, where Buriaš is a Kassite storm god possibly corresponding to the Greek Boreas, was a king in the Kassite dynasty of Babylon, in a kingdom contemporarily called Karduniaš, ruling ca. 1359–1333 BC, where the Short and Middle chronologies have converged. Recorded as the 19th King to ascend the Kassite throne, he succeeded Kadašman-Enlil I, who was likely his father, and ruled for 27 years. He was a contemporary of the Egyptian Pharaohs Amenhotep III and Akhenaten. The proverb "the time of checking the books is the shepherds' ordeal" was attributed to him in a letter to the later king Esarhaddon from his agent Mar-Issar.
Meli-Šipak II, or alternatively Melišiḫu in contemporary inscriptions, was the 33rd king of the Kassite or 3rd Dynasty of Babylon ca. 1186–1172 BC and he ruled for 15 years. Tablets with two of his year names, 4 and 10, were found at Ur. His reign marks the critical synchronization point in the chronology of the Ancient Near East.
Kiririsha was a major goddess worshiped in Elam.
Shutruk-Nakhunte was king of Elam from about 1184 to 1155 BC, and the second king of the Shutrukid Dynasty.
Kurigalzu I, usually inscribed ku-ri-gal-zu but also sometimes with the m or d determinative, the 17th king of the Kassite or 3rd dynasty that ruled over Babylon, was responsible for one of the most extensive and widespread building programs for which evidence has survived in Babylonia. The autobiography of Kurigalzu is one of the inscriptions which record that he was the son of Kadašman-Ḫarbe. Galzu, whose possible native pronunciation was gal-du or gal-šu, was the name by which the Kassites called themselves and Kurigalzu may mean Shepherd of the Kassites.
Zababa-šuma-iddina was the 35th and next to last king of the Kassite or 3rd dynasty of Babylon, who reigned for just one year, ca. 1158 BC. He was without apparent ties to the royal family and there is uncertainty concerning the circumstances of his coming to power.
Igi-Halki was a king of Susa and Anshan (Elam) early in the 14th century BC. In one of his inscriptions, he says that “(the goddess) Manzat-Ishtar granted him the kingship of Susa and Anzan...”. The absence of ancestor kings in this inscription made scholars suggest that he started a new dynasty in Elam, usually called Igihalkids. Igi-Halki might have been installed by a Babylonian king Kurigalzu I, who conquered Susa about that time. He is also mentioned as the father of king Attar-kittah on two mace heads found in Chogha Zanbil, and in the inscription of king Shilhak-Inshushinak as the father of kings Pahir-ishan and Attar-Kittah.
Humban-Numena was a king of Elam from the Igihalkid dynasty. He was a son and successor of King Attar-kittah. He married a daughter of the Kassite king Kurigalzu, who bore him Untash-Napirisha, who was thus a grandson of Kurigalzu. According to another interpretation of the primary source, he married the daughter of his uncle Pahir-ishshan, himself the son of a Kassite princess, and was thus a great-grandson of Kurigalzu.
Kidin-Hutran was a middle-Elamite king of the Igihalkid dynasty known for his wars with Babylonia. The Babylonian Chronicle P describes two Kidin-Hutran attacks. In his first raid, he crossed the Tigris, sacked Der and Nippur and deposed the Babylonian king, Enlil-nadin-shumi. Later on, during the reign of Adad-shuma-iddina, he attacked Babylonia again, striking Marad and Isin
Napirisha was an Elamite deity from the region of Anshan, and was the main deity of the kingdom from at least the late 3rd millennium BCE. In Elamite, his name means "Great (-ša) God (napir)"; in cuneiform texts, the word is written using the ideogram GAL, which was without a correct interpretation for some time.
Manzat (Manzât), also spelled Mazzi'at, Manzi'at and Mazzêt, sometimes known by the Sumerian name Tiranna (dTIR.AN.NA) was a Mesopotamian and Elamite goddess representing the rainbow. She was also believed to be responsible for the prosperity of cities.
The Shutrukid dynasty was a dynasty of the Elamite empire, in modern Iran. Under the Shutrukids, Elam reached a height in power.
Ishmekarab (Išmekarab) or Ishnikarab (Išnikarab) was a Mesopotamian deity of justice. The name is commonly translated from Akkadian as "he heard the prayer," but Ishmekarab's gender is uncertain and opinions of researchers on whether the deity was male or female vary.
Axe bearing the name of the king Untash-Napirisha.
Axe inscribed with the name of King Untash-Napirisha
The Ziggurat at Chogha Zanbil was built by Untash-Napirisha.
Fish-tailed deity holding snakes. Stele of Untash Napirisha, sandstone, ca. 1340–1300 BC, brought from Tchoga Zanbil to Susa in the 12th century BC. [12]
Plaque with inscription "Palace of Untash-Napirisha" from Chogha Zanbil
