Trade for the Gods…How to retrace the gifts for the gods in Neo-Elamite cultic practice?

In Mesopotamia, the temple cult and the practice of offerings to the gods was a well-documented part of society. A temple economy provided the material support for upholding the cultic rituals of a polytheistic pantheon. Elamite cultic practice is lesser known than its Mesopotamian counterpart. Unlike the elaborate Mesopotamian temple archives, evidence on Neo-Elamite cult practice is scarce. The sanctuaries (Chogha Zanbil) and temple mounds (Acropole, Susa) excavated by the délégation archéologique française en Iran give the impression of a similar religious cult practice as in Mesopotamia. The Elamite rock art (e.g. Kul-e Farah and Shikaft-e Salman) and objects (e.g. sit shamshi), displaying worship at open air sanctuaries, enlarge our perspective on Elamite cultic practice. Documentary references (e.g. captions, omens, rock inscriptions, economic texts, letters) provide circumstantial links to the archaeological and artistic materials. Despite the fact that our knowledge of Elamite cultic practice reflects a composite view of iconographic, archaeological and textual data, the variety of these sources does allow us to pursue an integrated data approach of which the results can be tested with a comparative methodology to models of cultic practice in neighboring civilizations. Since one of the most fascinating aspects of Near Eastern cultic practice was the offerings to the gods, this paper will closely examine to which extent one can retrace the gifts offered to the Neo-Elamite gods by applying an integrated data approach. After identifying the commodities and gifts with our variety of resources, one can question whether Neo-Elamite cultic practice was incorporated in Elam’s trade network. Did the Neo-Elamite gods receive their share of luxury products or were they satisfied with gifts of regional origin? Moreover, the long 7th century BC is known as a period of intense interaction and confrontation between Elam and the Neo-Assyrian empire. Neo-Assyrian armies raided the Elamite lowlands on a regular basis, often targeting places of worship and disrupting the supply chains for people and gods. The Neo-Elamite kings, who had often spent considerable parts of their life at Nineveh due to Elamite court intrigues, rebuilt temples and re-initiated cults. In this era of Neo-Assyrian interference, one can question whether the Neo-Elamite royal elite kept to their cultic traditions or whether we can find traces of religious exchange in Neo-Elamite culture. Although the limited corpus of Neo-Elamite historical data will never be able to provide us with an account as detailed as the Mesopotamian narrative on cultic practice, this paper can add new details to the Elamite narrative and therefore enhance our understanding of Elamite culture

Shilhak-inshushinak II

Shilhak-Inshushinak II, a late Neo-Elamite ruler, left us a dedicatory inscription on an ornament, found on the Susa Acropole. The limited sources on Shilhak-Inshushinak make it difficult to position the reign of this ruler within the relative chronology of the late Neo-Elamite period

Power and Politics in the Neo-Elamite kingdom

Power and politics in the Neo-Elamite kingdom (c. 1100-520 BC) documents one of the most obscure episodes in the political history of ancient southwestern Iran. Elam’s strategic position between the Mesopotamian alluvial plain, the Persian Gulf and the Iranian highlands made it a target for territorial expansion of the Neo-Assyrian empire. However, the ability of the Neo-Elamite kings to engage in a political alliance with the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, the flexibility of the Neo-Elamite government system and the dynamics between the various ethnic and social groups living within the multiple valleys of Elam protected the Elamite heartland for centuries against the continuous military threat. Elam became an indisputable partner in an inter-regional network of Mesopotamian states until the emergence of the Persian empire reshaped the political landscape of the Ancient Near East. By re-evaluating the dynastic lineage of Neo-Elamite kings, the geopolitical power of the Neo-Elamite kingdom and the (trans-)formation of the Elamite government system in the 1st millennium BC through written and archaeological evidence, the book aims to improve our understanding of the last centuries of Elam

Episode 30: Locating the Neo-Elamite kingdom

"Thin End of the Wedge podcasts" explores life in the ancient Middle East. There are many wonderful stories we can tell about those people, their communities, the gritty reality of their lives, their hopes, fears and beliefs. We do that through the objects that survive and the cities where people once lived. I focus on the cultures that used cuneiform (“wedge-shaped”) writing, so mostly on ancient Iraq and nearby regions from about 3000 BC to about 100 AD. "Thin End of the Wedge" brings you expert insights and the latest research in clear and simple language. We will also look at how we know things, why what we know is always changing, and why this is important today. In episode 30, dr. Elynn Gorris introduces the historical geography of the Neo-Elamite kingdom. What do we know about the borderlands and their role in Assyrian-Elamite relations? Why don't we know where so many places are, and why is that so significant

When God is forgotten…: The orthography of the theophoric element Hu(m)ban in Elamite and Mesopotamian Onomastics

This article investigates the multiple orthographies of the theophoric element Hu(m)ban in Elamite onomastics, attested in the Sumerian, Akkadian, Elamite and Achaemenid text corpus. By studying the impact of phonological evolutions on scribal practice, often based on cross-linguistic evidence, one aims to obtain a better understanding of the context in which these variations on the theophoric element Hu(m)ban were used

Hubanid dynasty

In scholarly literature, the Hubanid dynasty is often used as a collective name for the kings ruling the Neo-Elamite kingdom before the Sack of Susa (646 BC). However, far more plausible is the existence of two Neo- Elamite royal dynasties. The second Neo-Elamite royal dynasty, starting with the reign of Huban-haltaš I and ending with king Tammaritu, can therefore be named the Hubanid dynasty (688-647 BC). During the era of the Hubanid dynasty, Elam faced a growing amount of Assyrian hostilities and interference in Elamite politics, resulting on a domestic level in court intrigues and a rapid succession of Elamite kings. Consequently, the power base of the Hubanid kings diminished, which provided a window for a group of rebel kings (650-645 BC) to seize power

Te-uman

Te-uman (664-653 BC) or Tepti-Huban-Inšušinak I is a Neo-Elamite king of the Hubanid dynasty. His reign is known for its anti-Assyrian policy, which led to the one of the best-documented military confrontations between Assyria and Elam in the 1st millennium BC, i.e. the battle of Til-Tuba (563 BC)

"Don't let the boats pass! Neo-Elamite grain procurement in times of famine and drought

This article is concerned with interregional trade dynamics between Elam and Mesopotamia in the early to mid-1st millennium BC. During the 7th century BC, two great famines in the Neo-Elamite kingdom, of which climatologial changes were a major cause, were documented in the textual records. An era of megadrought made grain procurement from the neighbouring regions essential for feeding the Neo-Elamite lowland population. The article will further explore how the two Neo-Elamite famines and the “drought of the century” impacted the commercial and political mechanisms in the Upper Persian Gulf region

Crossing Borders…Perilous Journeys for the Elamite Diplomats and Messengers

Although some reports on foreign policy exist for Ancient Near Eastern states in the first millennium BC, studies illuminating on the diplomatic behaviour between an early Iranian state and the Mesopotamian empires are scarce. Nevertheless, the Elamite texts and Akkadian royal correspondence (8th-6th century BC) does give regular hints on the efforts of the Elamite diplomats and messengers to optimize the international relations between Elam on the one hand and the Babylonian and Assyrian rulers on the other. This paper will therefore explore the role of the Elamite officials in the international diplomatic relations of the Neo-Elamite kings with the neighboring states Assyria and Babylonia

Remarques sur la lettre ninivite quatorze en langue élamite(BM 83-1-18, 307)

L'article s'agit sur l'un des tablettes neo-élamites (Nin 14, BM 83-1-18, 307) appartenant de l'archive des lettres ninivites en élamite, conservées au British Museum. La copie manuscrite de la 14ième lettre par C.B.F. Walker est ambiguë. L'étude de Nin 14 avec la technologie PLD a permis de corriger la lecture pour le recto de la tablette et de reconstituer la première phrase.The article comments on one of the Neo-Elamite tablets (Nin 14; BM 83-1-18, 307) belonging to the small archive of the so-called Elamite Nineveh Letters, preserved in the British Museum. The hand-copy of Nin 14 by C.B.F. Walker was drawn badly, resulting in an erroneous reconstruction of the first sentence