The Old Elamite Period

The history of Elam in the period between the end of the 3rd and the first centuries of the 2nd millennium BC is marked by a progressive growth of a powerful state in Western Iran controlled by the Shimashki and Sukkalmah dynasties. Its socio-political organization can be reconstructed only in general terms, since cuneiform texts coming from Susa in Khuzestan contain few indications of the kingdom's inner structures and since references to Elam in external sources pertained exclusively to its relationship with the Mesopotamian centres. Susa and Anshan became large towns with public and royal buildings, representing the main poles of an articulated regional framework, including Luristan, the Persian Gulf coast, the highlands of Fars and the Susiana plain. The large territorial extension, the abundance of raw materials and natural resources, the diversified pattern of settlement occupation and probably a hierarchical organization with strong kinship ties make Elam the most powerful reign of the Near East during the Middle Bronze Age, when the Amorite kings of Mesopotamia called the Sukkalmah 'father', attributing to the Elamite king a superior political rank, while they consider themselves peers.