13 Facts About Elam

Elam was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of what is Khuzestan and Ilam Province as well as a small part of southern Iraq.

In classical literature, Elam was known as Susiana, a name derived from its capital Susa.

Elam was part of the early urbanization of the Near East during the Chalcolithic period .

In prehistory, Elam was centered primarily in modern Khuzestan and Ilam.

Elam referred to Elam as primarily the highland area of Khuzestan.

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Some modern scholars argued that the center of Elam lay at Anshan and in the highlands around it, and not at Susa in lowland Khuzistan.

Potts disagrees suggesting that the term 'Elam' was primarily constructed by the Mesopotamians to describe the area in general terms, without referring specifically either to the lowlanders or the highlanders,.

The history of Elam is conventionally divided into three periods, spanning more than two millennia.

From this time, Mesopotamian sources concerning Elam become more frequent, since the Mesopotamians had developed an interest in resources from the Iranian plateau, and military expeditions to the area became more common.

Trade between the Indus Valley civilization and the cities of Mesopotamia and Elam, can be inferred from numerous find of Indus artifacts, particularly in the excavation at Susa.

Elam installed several vassal kings such as Tammaritu, although these quickly broke off relations with Assyria over their pillages.

Some researchers, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, saw her as a mother goddess, and possibly originally chief deity, in northern Elam, later supplanted by or identified with Kiririsha, but this view is no longer supported by scholars.

From 410 onwards Elam was the senior metropolitan province of the Church of the East, surviving into the 14th century.