Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of plates
- List of tables
- Preface and acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Note on transliteration and dating systems
- 1 Elam: what, when, where?
- 2 Environment, climate and resources
- 3 The immediate precursors of Elam
- 4 Elam and Awan
- 5 The dynasty of Shimashki
- 6 The grand regents of Elam and Susa
- 7 The kingdom of Susa and Anshan
- 8 The Neo-Elamite period
- 9 Elam in the Achaemenid empire
- 10 Elymais
- 11 Elam under the Sasanians and beyond
- 12 Conclusion
- References
- Index
3 - The immediate precursors of Elam
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of plates
- List of tables
- Preface and acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Note on transliteration and dating systems
- 1 Elam: what, when, where?
- 2 Environment, climate and resources
- 3 The immediate precursors of Elam
- 4 Elam and Awan
- 5 The dynasty of Shimashki
- 6 The grand regents of Elam and Susa
- 7 The kingdom of Susa and Anshan
- 8 The Neo-Elamite period
- 9 Elam in the Achaemenid empire
- 10 Elymais
- 11 Elam under the Sasanians and beyond
- 12 Conclusion
- References
- Index
Summary
Should one, in a work devoted to an ancient state such as Elam, review the entire record of human settlement prior to the earliest unambiguous appearance of that state in the historical record? The answer to a question such as this depends in large part on whether one believes there was or was not a connection between the earliest Palaeolithic or Neolithic inhabitants of the region and the later Elamites. In general, the position adopted here is that while, for example, the late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers of the Zagros may have been related, either biologically or culturally, to the later Elamites, we have at present no way of determining that this was the case. As this is a book devoted to Elam and not to Iranian prehistory, therefore, most of the archaeological cultures which preceded the Elamites in southwestern Iran will not be discussed. Having said this, how far back in time should we look if our aim is to understand the genesis (or ethnogenesis) of Elam?
The approach taken in this book has been to look at two of the core areas of later Elamite activity – central Fars and Khuzistan, particularly the sites of Tal-i Bakun, Tal-i Malyan and Susa – beginning in the later fifth millennium BC. The justification for this is not a firm belief that the peoples of these areas can be justifiably considered ancestors of the Elamites.
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- Information
- The Archaeology of ElamFormation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State, pp. 43 - 84Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999