Elam, elamites (Hastings' Dictionary)

The Heb. Elam is the Assyr. Elamtu, 'the Highlands ELA^^, KLAMITES ELAxM, ELAMITES 675 (a name also applied to the Amorite ' Hi;,'lilanils' in the west), ElamO, 'an Elaraite.' Elamtu is the Semitic translation of the Suraerian Nuninia or Ninima, which has the same signilication, and wjis the name applied by the Proto-chalda'ans to the mountainous land to the east of them.

Elara possessed two ruling cities, Susa or Shushan, called Susun ('the old') in the native texts (now Shuster), on the Ulai or Euhius, and Anzan or Ansan, nearer Babylonia in the south-west. The two cities gave their names to the districts in which thcv were situated, an inhabitant of Susiana being called Susunka, the 'Susanchite' of Ezr 4'. The district of Anzan was more extensive than that of Susa, and at one time was equivalent to ' the land of Eiam ' amon" the Babylonians [JV. A. I. ii. 47.

18). Cyrus and his immediate predecessors were kings of Anzan, the countrj- having apparently been conquered by the Persian Teispes during the decline of the Assyr. empire. Sir H. Itawlinson notices that an early Arab, writer, Ibn en-Nad!m, states that writing was invented by Jenishid, who lived at Assan, one of the districts of Shuster. The kings of Susa, however, eventually got pos- Be».sion of Anzan, and so founded the kingdom of Elain.

They call themselves lords ' of the king- dom of Anzan ' ; and as this title is found on their bricks at Bushire, the kingdom must have ex- tended as far as the sea. To the east is the plain of Mai-Amir, where there are sculptures and cuneiform inscriptions, from which we learn that here was another kinj;- dom called Apirti, the ' Apharsites' of Ezr i'.

In the agglutinative language of the second transcript of the Acha>menian texts the name is written Khapirti, and it has there taken the place of \nzan or Susa as the ecpiivalent of the Bab. "Ilamtu. The equivalent in the Persian transcript 9 Uwaja, whence the modern Khuzistan. The dialects of Mal-Aniir, of Susa, and of the Becond Ach.fmenian transcripts differ but slightly from one another. They are agglutinative, and, BO far as can be judged, unrelated to any other known language.

Tlie statement in Gn 10-'-, that Elam was the son of Sheni, does not imply any racial or linguistic connexion, the object of the chapter being purely geograjjliical. According to Ncarchu.s, as reported bv Strabo (xi. 13. 3, (i), 'four bandit nations' inhabited the mountainous region east of the Euphrates, the Aniardians or Mardians who bordered on the Persians, the Uxians and Elyiiieans on tlie frontiers of Persia and Susa, and the Kossfcans contiguous to the Medea.

The Amardians may be the people of Khapirti, the Uxians belonged to Uwaja, Elyniais (1 Mac 6') is Elam, and the Kossa^ans are the Kassi of the Assyr. inscriptions of whose language many wonls are preserved, which, how- ever, seem to have no connexion with the dialects of Elam. 'Ansan, in the land of Nunima* or Elam, was ,Oonc|iiercd by Gudea, an early viceroy of southern IBabylonia (in B.C.

270U), whose monuments have keen found at Telloh ; and Mutabil, another early riceroy (of Durilu on the eastern frontier), ' broke the head of the armies of Ansan.' Kudur-Mabug, the prince of lamutbal, a district of Elam immecli- fctely east'vard of Cliahhia, was the father of Eri- Aku or Arioch (whi<li see), and 'father of the land of the Aniorites' or Syria. At the same period Cheihirlaomer (Kudiir-Lagamar) was suzerain of Babylonia and Palestine ((Jn 14'""), and the notices in the Bab.

a8trolo''ieal tablets which refer to ' the king of Anzan and Subarti ' or Mesopotamia probably belong to the same date. The defeat of the Elamitcs by Khammurabi, king of Babylon, enabled him to overcome Eri-Aku, and make Babylonia a nnited monarchy (B.C. 2330). In B.C. 2-2SU the Elamite king Kudur-Nankhundi made a raid into Babylonia, and carried away the image of the goddess Nana-a (sue 2 Mac 1"), which Assur- banipal recovered l():!5 years afterwards.

Nearly a thousiind years later we tind Khurba-tilaof Elam going to war with Kuri-galzu ll. of Babylonia (B.C. 134IJ) ; but his own men revolted from him, and he was defeated and captured at Dur-Dungi by Kuri- galzu. About a century afterwards (c. B.C. 123u) Kidin-Kliutru invaded Babylonia, and, after taking Durilu, put an end to the Kassite dj-na.sty at Babylon. A second invasion by the same king was not so successful. In B.C. 11I5(?)

Babylonia seems to have been conquered by the Elamites, as a dynasty of two Elamite kings then began to rule it. In B.C. 742 Umman-nigas or Klminba-nigas became king of Elam, and in 721 assisted Merodach- baladan against Sargon of Assyria, whom he repulsed at Durilu. He died in 718, and was succeeded by his sister's son, Sutruk-Nankhundi, who in 711 again as.sisted Merodaeh-baladan, but this time to no purpose.

Sargon defeated and captured his general Singusibu, and added the Elamite districts of latbur, Lakliiru, and Rasi to Assyria. After a reign of eighteen years Sutruk- Nankhundi was imprisoned by his brother Khal- ludus, who seized the crown. Jle captured Babylon in the rear of Sennacherib, who haa gone by sea to Na^itu, on the Elamite coast, in order to destroy a settlement made there by the fugitive Merodaeh- baladan, an<i the Bab.

king, who was a son of Sennacherib, was carried captive to Elam. A year and a half afterwards (B.C. 093) the Elamite nominee at Babylon was captured by the Assyrians, and in the following Siptumber Khalludus was murdered. Kudur, Nankhumii succeeded him, and Sennacherib ravaged Elam, capturing even Madaktu north of Susa, until driven back oy the winter. The following July, Kudur-Nankh. was killed in an insurrection, and Umman-menanu put on the throne. In B.C.

690 came the great battle of Khalulci, when Sennacherib met the combined forces of Elam and Babylonia, and both sides claimed the victory. The king of Elam had under him the troops of Parsuas (Persia), Anzan, Pasiru, and Ellipi (where Ecbatana afterwards stood), besides the Arara.cans and Kaldi or Chal- d.cans of southern Babylonia. On the l.'ith of Nisan, B.C. 689, he was paralyzed, and died the following November. Uniman-Klialdas 1.

, his successor, reined eight years, when he was burnt to death on the 3rd of 'I'isri, and Uniman-Khaldas II. ascended the throne. He was murdered in 67") by his two brothers, Urtaki and Te-Umman, the elder of whom took the crown, and about ten years later made an unprovoked raid into Babylonia. The result was the conquest of Elam by the Assj'r. king Assurbanipal, who placed Uninian-igas the son of Urtaki on the throne as a tributary prince.

He joined the great revolt against Assyria, which was lieaded by the viceroy of Babylonia; but ho had hardly sent his army into that country when his son Tammaritu conspired again.st him, and, cutting off his head, sent it to Assurbanipal. Tammaritu then joined the Babylonians, and, during his absence, one of his servants, Inda-bigas, usurped the throne. Thereupon Tammaritu sur- rendered to the Assyrians.

Shortly afterwards Inda-bigas was munlercd by another military ad- venturer, Umman-Khaldaa in., and the Assyr. army again entered Elam, took Ma<laktu, and restored Tammaritu to the throne. He was soon found to be i>lotting against his masters ; and as Umman-Khaldas once more possessed himself of the country, the Assyr. general wasted it with fire and sword. Su.sa and the other cities were levelled with the ground, the temples and palacai destroyed, and the sacred groves out down.

Thirty-twu 676 ELASA ELDER statues of the kings were carried to Assyria, as well as the images of all the Elamite deities — Sosinak, the god who delivered oracles, and whose image was concealed from the sight of the laity, Sumudu, Lagamar, Part'kira, Araman-Kasinias, Udiiran, Sapak, Ra^ba, Sungursara, Karsa and Kirsamas, Sudanu, Apak-sina, Bilala, Panintimri, Silagara, Napsa, Nabritu, and Kindakaibu (to whom we have to add also Laguda, Nakhkhunte or Nankhundi, and Khumba).

The kingdom of Elara perished, and a desolated province was added to the Assyr. empire. But the empire was already on the decline, and in a few years Elam ceased to belong to it. In B.C. 600, the year probably of the destruction of Nineveh, Jeremiah refers to ' the kings of Elam ' (Jer 25"), and eight years later he declares that Elam is about to be consumed by its enemies, its king and princes destroyed, and its people scattered (49"''°).

This would, fit in with the conquest of Anzan by Teispes the Persian, the ancestor of Cyrus (which see). When Elam and Media are called upon to besiege Babylon in Is 21', Cyrus, king of Anzan, must be meant, as Anzan was synonymous with Elam among the Babylonians. It would appear from Ac 2* that the old language of Elam was still spoken there in the first century of our era. LrraRATTTBE.

— Billerbcck, Suta (1893); Dieulafoy, L'AcropoU de Suse (IS&O); Sayce, 'The Inscriptions of Mai-Amir,' in the Tramactions of the Leyden Oriental Congress (liSS) ; LofLus, CToWaa oikJ Susiana (18S7). A. H. SaYCE. ELASi ('AXa<rd), 1 Mac 9».— The site may be at the ruin IVasa, near Bethhoron (SWP iii. sh. 17).