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ElamHaltamti

Middle East & Central AsiaHeartland today: Iran

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Elam was a civilization in what is now south-western Iran, centred on Susa. It had its own writing, repeatedly raided Mesopotamian kingdoms, and carried Hammurabi's law stele home as loot. Assyria sacked Susa about 647 BCE.

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Key events

  1. – Scribes at Susa and across Iran write accounts in Proto-Elamite, a script still not fully readDisputed

    The two sources start the period at 3100 and 3200 BCE. The script has not been fully deciphered, so its contents are known only in part.

  2. Sargon of Akkad conquers Awan and takes Susa, bringing Elam under Akkadian ruleDisputed

    The date is approximate. The claim comes from Sargon's own inscriptions and year names.

  3. Elamites sack Ur and take its king, Ibbi-Sin, prisonerDisputed

    Middle-chronology date of c. 2004 BCE; other chronologies place it decades later.

  4. Untash-Napirisha builds Dur Untash, with a ziggurat at Chogha Zanbil for the god InshushinakDisputed

    Wikipedia notes the construction date is unclear because the dating of Elamite kings is uncertain. The year shown is about 1250 BCE.

  5. Shutruk-Nahhunte raids Babylonia and carries the stelae of Hammurabi and Naram-Sin back to SusaDisputed

    The raid is dated to about 1158 BCE; sources give his reign as about 1184 to 1155 BCE, and the Kassite dynasty is dated to end in 1155 BCE.

  6. Ashurbanipal of Assyria sacks Susa, the Elamite capital, ending the long wars between Assyria and ElamDisputed

    Sources give 647 and about 646 BCE for the sack. The year shown is 647 BCE.