Semites of the same stock as those of Chaldaea pushed forward as far as the east bank of the Tigris, and settling mainly among the marshes led a precarious life by fishing and pillaging.* The country of the plain was called Anzan, or Anshan,** and the mountain region Numma, or Ilamma, "the high lands:" these two names were subsequently used to denote the whole country, and Ilamma has survived in the Hebrew word Elam.*** Susa, the most important and flourishing town in the kingdom, was situated between the Ulai and the Ididi, some twenty-five or thirty miles from the nearest of the mountain ranges. * From the earliest times we meet beyond the Tigris with names like that of Durilu, a fact which proves the existence of races speaking a Semitic dialect in the countries under the suzerainty of the King of Elam: in the last days of the Chaldaean empire they had assumed such importance that the Hebrews made out Elam to be one of the sons of Shem (_Gen._ x. 22). ** Anzan, Anshan, and, by assimilation of the nasal with the sibilant, Ashshan. This name has already been mentioned in the inscriptions of the kings and vicegerents of Lagash and in the _Book of Prophecies_ of the ancient Chaldaean astronomers; it also occurs in the royal preamble of Cyrus and his ancestors, who like him were styled "kings of Anshan." It had been applied to the whole country of Elam, and afterwards to Persia. Some are of opinion that it was the name of a part of Elam, viz. that inhabited by the Turanian Medes who spoke the second language of the Achaemenian inscriptions, the eastern half, bounded by the Tigris and the Persian Gulf, consisting of a flat and swampy land. These differences of opinion gave rise to a heated controversy; it is now, however, pretty generally admitted that Anzan-Anshan was really the plain of Elam, from the mountains to the sea, and one set of authorities affirms that the word Anzan may have meant "plain" in the language of the country, while others hesitate as yet to pronounce definitely on this point. *** The meaning of "Nunima," "Ilamma," "Ilamtu," in the group of words used to indicate Elam, had been recognised even by the earliest Assyriologists; the name originally referred to the hilly country on the north and east of Susa. To the Hebrews, Elam was one of the sons of Shem (Gen. x. 22). The Greek form of the name is Elymais, and some of the classical geographers were well enough acquainted with the meaning of the word to be able to distinguish the region to which it referred from Susiana proper. [Illustration: 048.jpg THE TUMULUS OF SUSA, AS IT APPEARED TOWARDS THE MIDDLE OF THE XIXth CENTURY] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after a plate in Chesney.