In the IV-III millennium BC. e. the territory of Iran was quite densely populated by tribes related to each other, close in origin to their eastern neighbors - the Dravids of the Indus Valley. The tribes of the country of Elam, which occupied the south-west of Iran, were the first of them to go over to statehood (the Mesopotamians gave this name to it rooted in science in imitation of the Elamite self-name "Haltempt" - "Land of God"). The largest centers of Elam were Susa in the west, in the valley of the Kerhe river, and Anchan in the east (modern Tepe-Malyan in Fars).
The final impulse to state formation of the Elamites was given by the Sumerians, in the IV millennium BC. e. who subdued Susiana and founded a colony in Susa, which became the center for the spread of the culture and political experience of Mesopotamia in Elam. At this time, the Elamites mastered writing, and with the departure of the Sumerians, they created their own state, which quickly subjugated almost the entire Iranian plateau. The main centers of the state were its colonies, known from the Elamite administrative documents of the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e. The Elamites lost their external possessions after several centuries, but they kept their own ethnopolitical unity and statehood for millennia.
Elam was a federation of several "countries" - princedoms, sometimes united under the rule of a dynasty of one of them, then again disintegrating. Wherever the ruling dynasty came from, the capital of Elam was usually Susa - the largest city of Elam, which lay in the most fertile part of the country and controlled the routes from Elam to Mesopotamia. In phases of strong unification, the Elamites usually conquered vast hinterlands of Iran, and sometimes even a large part of Mesopotamia; in the phases of disintegration, the country fell into decay, lost all gains and stopped active foreign policy activities.
Elam's permanent geopolitical opponents were the states of Mesopotamia. Moreover, if powerful Mesopotamian empires, such as the powers of Akkad and Ur, Babylonia Hammurabi, the New Assyrian and New Babylonian powers, quickly achieved a stable dominance over Elam and often occupied Susiana, then during periods of economic and political decline Mesopotamia overwhelmed the transition to this.
Elam was characterized by archaic customs of tribal antiquity, in particular, co-government-three-power, marriages with sisters and levirate - inheritance by a brother to a deceased brother with simultaneous marriage to the widow of the deceased. The main units of society were large-family communities with collective land tenure and land use. However, they gradually fell apart into small private farms. The royal and temple estates stood apart. Mesopotamian sources portray Elam as a land of demons and evil witchcraft, and its inhabitants as greedy highland robbers for Mesopotamian wealth.
By the middle of the III millennium BC. e. state formation processes covered the entire territory of Iran, and it turned out to be covered by dozens of "nomov" kingdoms and their associations that maintained close contacts with each other and were mostly related in ethnicity and culture (their peoples, as a rule, belonged to the Elamo-Dravidian community). Taken together, all these formations represented a special regional oecumene that mediated contacts between similar "neighboring" oecumene - Mesopotamian and Indian, and achieved economic prosperity thanks to this mediation and a high level of productive economy. These three worlds - Mesopotamian, Iranian and Indian - and constituted a continuous belt of civilized societies of Asia in the middle - 2nd half of the 3rd millennium BC. e.
Among the ethnopolitical formations of Iran of that era, in addition to Elam, mention should be made of Aratta in Central Iran, as well as a special ethnocultural community known for its contacts with Sumer in northern Iran, which occupied Sialk and Gissar and left monuments of the so-called Astrabad bronze. Presumably, these were the tribes of the Caspians, from which the Caspian Sea got its name in ancient times. In addition, tribal associations of Kuti and Lullubes lived in the Zagros mountains, a powerful kingdom of Varakhshe arose in Southeast Iran, which controlled all the territories between Elam and the zone of the Indus civilization, and in the north-east of Iran there was a vast cultural region of Anau - Namazgi (the country of Kharali in Mesopotamian sources). The territories lying further to the east were included in the sphere of cultural influences of the Dravidians of the Indian civilization,sometimes extended their power to the Amu Darya.
In the XXIII century. BC e. the western and southern parts of this ancient Iranian ecumene (including the Zagros region, Elam, Varakhshe and Aratta) were subjected to the military onslaught of the Akkadian state and at times recognized the supreme dominion of its kings, from Sargon to Naramsuen. However, the Akkadian kings did not achieve lasting power over these territories. Power of the III dynasty of Ur in the XXI century. BC e. At the cost of multiple military campaigns, she established temporary control over western-central Iran and Elam, but soon Elam rebelled against her power and, after a fierce war, destroyed the Ur state: the Elamites defeated its capital Ur and captured the last king of Ur Ibisuen (2003 BC).).
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Around 1775-1765 BC e. under King Sivepalarhukhpak Elam, having intervened in the strife of the Mesopotamian kings, he even exercised supreme dominion over almost all of Mesopotamia, including the famous Hammurabi of Babylon. At this time, the Elamites began to call for help against each other, already the Syrian princes. The united Elamo-Mesopotamian army under the command of the Elamite dynast Kutir-Lagamar made a sortie into the Eastern Mediterranean up to Transjordan (the memory of this is preserved in the Bible, Gen. 14). However, this highest rise of Elamite power was ephemeral. In 1764 BC. e. Hammurabi overthrew the Elamite domination, defeated the Elamites and their allies in a long war, and occupied Susiana himself.
In the XVIII-XVII centuries. BC e. the most ancient civilized ecumene of Iran ceased to exist as a result of the mass resettlement of the Indo-Aryans (Indo-Iranians) and the chain displacements of the aboriginal population caused by their onslaught. The same chain of migrations destroyed the Indian civilization at its end. Then the northern Iranian cultural community of the "Astrabad Bronze" was completely destroyed, the carriers of the Namazgi culture fled to the east, and other old centers were desolate. Only the outlying states of the former Iran survived - the Zagros "nomov" principalities, Elam and Varakhsha. The second wave of Indo-Iranian settlement in the region (mid-3rd quarter of the 2nd millennium BC) led to the fact that only one of them, Elam, survived. The other non-Indo-Europeans of Iran were partially exterminated by the Aryan aliens,but they were mainly assimilated or pushed back to hard-to-reach and infertile areas, where they existed as tribal relics for many centuries. So, back in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. Baluchistan was inhabited by akin to the Dravidians, known to Greek historians as the "Asian Ethiopians."
Elam at the end of the 2nd millennium BC e. was experiencing a new period of prosperity, associated with the fact that in the country for the time being was established the autocracy and one inheritance of the tsars instead of the usual co-government. At the end of the XIII century. BC e. Elam made successful raids on Kassite Babylonia, and in the middle of the XII century. BC e. completely devastated and partially occupied it, at the same time inflicting a victorious blow on Assyria (during the Shutrukid dynasty, approx. 1205-1075 BC, including Shutruk-Nakhhunte, 1185-1145 BC, Kutir- Nahhunte III, 1145–1140 BC and Shilhak-Inshushinake, 1140–1120 BC). At this time, the expansion of Elam reached its climax, and he himself came closest to the usual type of Middle Eastern empire. However, the Babylonians who unexpectedly recovered were able to defeat the Elamites near Dera (c. 1115 BC) under Nebuchadnezzar I.) and defeat Elam in such a way that this state disappeared from Mesopotamian sources for 300 years.
By the middle of the XI century. BC e. The Elamite kingdom fell apart. The new general Elamite kingdom, the dynasty of which erected itself to the Shutrukids, but at the same time restored the regime of triarchy, was created only around the middle of the 8th century. BC e. and could never completely overcome the fragmentation of the country. Its foreign policy history is the history of continuous wars with Assyria, which, despite the strong anti-Assyrian alliance of Elam with Babylonia, went generally unfavorably, and after the defeat of Babylon in 689 BC. e. - disastrous for Elam. Internal history was rife with troubles, palace coups and rivalry between co-rulers. As a result, around the middle of the 7th century. BC e. Iranian-speaking tribes of the Persians captured one of the most important regions of the country - Anchan, and in 644 BC. e. Elam was temporarily annexed by Assyria.
Persian tributary from Elam. Relief (c. 500 BC).
During the period of weakening and crisis of Assyria around 624 BC. e. The Elamite kingdom was restored, but soon it recognized the supreme power of the Medes, and in the late 590s. BC e. under the blows of Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon lost Susiana, and in 549 BC. e. Cyrus the Great turned him into a satrapy of the Persian state, which drew a line under the three-thousand-year history of Elamite statehood. Nevertheless, the Iranization of the bulk of the Elamites took place no earlier than the 1st century. n. e., and their native language was preserved until the X century. n. e. The Iranized descendants of the Elamites are the modern mountaineers of Southwestern Iran - the Bakhtiars and Lurs.
From the book: "History of the Ancient East".