Above the proto-Elamite zone the ruins become confused and belong to
different periods. It is obvious that the soil of Susa was constantly
overturned and pillaged. Happily the beacon light of history now begins
to guide our footsteps, and enables us to classify chronologically those
remains, which are discovered in disorder. The written texts, which are
increasingly numerous, from this time are divided into two main classes;
the first written in a Semitic dialect, the second in the Anzanite
language. This shows that in the country of Elam at that remote period
an ethnic dualism existed, which corresponds with the double name for
the capital of Anzan and Susa--a dualism which certain sculptured
representations of the human figure also exhibit from the
anthropological and ethnological point of view. The Anzanite
inscriptions are still only partly decipherable, notwithstanding the
insight shown by Dr. Scheil in commencing a study of them.
As to the inscriptions in the Elamite language, over a thousand have
been brought to the Louvre. They are on slabs of stone, on blocks which
have served as sockets for doors, and yet more are inscribed with a
stylus on bricks.
These have been deciphered by Dr. Scheil; they give the names of the
kings by whose commands the buildings were erected, in which they were
employed. With the help of these clues, and guided by some more explicit
texts and by the information about Susa already afforded us in the
inscriptions of Chaldæa and Assyria, it has been possible to establish
the first landmarks of the history of that powerful Elamite empire,
whose complete annals will shortly provide a new chapter of the history
of the Ancient World.
After the mythical period, in which such kings as Humbaba and Kudur
appear, whose names so far only occur in legendary poems and stories,
the earliest historical texts introduce us to the princes of Elam as
vassals of the Mesopotamian suzerains. Of these the first is called
Ur-iti-Adad, vassal successively of the two kings of Agade,
Sargani-sar-ali, and Naram-Sin, about B.C. 3750. One of his successors,
Karibu-Sa-Susinak, _patesi_ of Susa, _sakkanak_ of Elam, boasts of
having built the temple of the god Sugu “the ancient,” and of having
constructed the canal of Sidur; he is a vassal of Dungi, king of Ur,
and of Gudea, _patesi_ of Sirpurla.
To the rule of the _patesis_ at Elam succeeded that of the _Sukkal-mah_.
This was occasioned by a change in the suzerainty, which from being
Chaldæan now became Elamite.
About B.C. 2280 the king of Susa, Kudur-Nakhunta, effected the conquest
of Mesopotamia and decorated his capital with the spoils of the towns of
Chaldæa; notable among these was the statue of the goddess Nana, which
he caused to be transported from Uruk (Erech) to Susa.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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