Coordinates: 32°11′21″N 48°15′28″E / 32.18922°N 48.257785°E / 32.18922; 48.257785

Tepe of the Royal city (left) and of the Acropolis (right), seen from the Hill mound of the Apadana. Susa, Iran.

History of Iran

See also: Kings of Persia · Timeline of Iran

Antiquity Prehistory Proto-Elamite period 3200–2800 Elamite dynasty 2800–550 Kassites 16th–12th cent. Mannaeans 10th–7th cent. Median Empire 728–550 Achaemenid Empire 550–330 Seleucid Empire 330–150 Parthian Empire 248 BCE–226 CE Sassanid Empire 226–651 Middle Ages Islamic conquest 637–651 Umayyad Caliphate 661–750 Abbasid Caliphate 750–1258 Tahirid dynasty 821–873 Alavid dynasty 864–928 Sajid dynasty 889/890–929 Saffarid dynasty 861–1003 Samanid dynasty 875–999 Ziyarid dynasty 928–1043 Buyid dynasty 934–1062 Sallarid 942–979 Ma'munids 995-1017 Ghaznavid Empire 963–1187 Ghori dynasty 1149–1212 Seljuq dynasty 1037–1194 Khwarezmid dynasty 1077–1231 Ilkhanate 1256–1353 Muzaffarid dynasty 1314–1393 Chupanid dynasty 1337–1357 Sarbadars 1337–1376 Jalayerid dynasty 1339–1432 Timurid dynasty 1370–1506 Qara Qoyunlu 1407–1468 Aq Qoyunlu 1378–1508 Modern history Safavid dynasty 1501–1722/36 Hotaki dynasty 1722–1729 Afsharid dynasty 1736–1750 Zand dynasty 1750–1794 Qajar dynasty 1781–1925 Pahlavi dynasty 1925–1979 Interim Government 1979–1980 Islamic Republic since 1980 view talk edit

Susa (Persian: شوش‎ Shush [ʃuʃ]; Greek: Σοῦσα [ˈsuːsa]; Syriac: ܫܘܫ Shush; Old Persian Çūšā-; Biblical Hebrew שׁוּשָׁן Shushān) was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian and Parthian empires of Iran. It is located in the lower Zagros Mountains about 250 km (160 mi) east of the Tigris River, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers.

The modern Iranian town of Shush is located at the site of ancient Susa. Shush is the administrative capital of the Shush County of Iran's Khuzestan province. It had a population 64,960 in 2005.^[1]

History[link]

Map showing the area of the Elamite Empire (in red) and the neighboring areas. The approximate Bronze Age extension of the Persian Gulf is shown.

In historic literature, Susa appears in the very earliest Sumerian records, e.g. in Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta it is described as one of the places obedient to Inanna, patron deity of Uruk.

Susa is also mentioned in the Ketuvim of the Hebrew Bible by the name Shushan, mainly in Esther, but also once each in Nehemiah and Daniel. Both Daniel and Nehemiah lived in Susa during the Babylonian captivity of the 6th century BCE. Esther became queen there, and saved the Jews from genocide. A tomb presumed to be that of Daniel is located in the area, known as Shush-Daniel. The tomb is marked by an unusual white stone cone, which is neither regular nor symmetric. Many scholars believe it was at one point a Star of David. Susa is further mentioned in the Book of Jubilees (8:21 & 9:2) as one of the places within the inheritance of Shem and his eldest son Elam; and in 8:1, "Susan" is also named as the son (or daughter, in some translations) of Elam.

Greek mythology attributed the founding of Susa to king Memnon of Aethiopia, a character from Homer's Trojan War epic, the Iliad.

Proto-Elamite[link]

In urban history, Susa is one of the oldest-known settlements of the region and the world, possibly founded about 4200 BCE. Archeologists have dated the first traces of an inhabited Neolithic village to c 7000 BCE. Evidence of a painted-pottery civilization has been dated to c 5000 BCE. Its name in Elamite was written variously Ŝuŝan, Ŝuŝun, etc. The origin of the word Susa is from the local city deity Inshushinak.

Like its Chalcolithic neighbor Uruk, Susa began as a discrete settlement in the Susa I period (c 4000 BCE). These two settlements, called Acropolis (7 ha) and Apadana (6.3 ha) by archeologists, would later merge to form Susa proper (18 ha).^[2] The Apadana was enclosed by 6m thick walls of rammed earth. The founding of Susa corresponded with the abandonment of nearby villages. Potts suggests that the city may have been founded to try to reestablish the previously destroyed settlement at Chogha Mish.^[2] Susa was firmly within the Uruk cultural sphere during the Uruk period. An imitation of the entire state apparatus of Uruk, proto-writing, Cylinder seals with Sumerian motifs, and monumental architecture, is found at Susa. Susa may have been a colony of Uruk. As such, the periodization of Susa corresponds to Uruk; Early Middle and Late Susa II periods (3800–3100 BCE) correspond to Early, Middle, and Late Uruk periods.

By the middle Susa II period, the city had grown to 25 ha.^[2] Susa III (3100–2900 BCE) corresponds with Uruk III period. Ambiguous reference to Elam (Cuneiform; 𒉏 NIM) appear also in this period in Sumerian records. Susa enters history during the Early Dynastic period of Sumer. A battle between Kish and Susa is recorded in 2700 BCE.

Elamites[link]

In politics, Susa was the capital of a state called Šušan, which occupied approximately the same territory of modern Khūzestān Province centered on the Karun River. Control of Šušan shifted between Elam, Sumer, and Akkad. Šušan is sometimes mistaken as synonymous with Elam, but it was a distinctly separate cultural and political entity.^[3] Šušan was incorporated by Sargon the Great into his Akkadian Empire in approximately 2330 BCE. It was the capital of an Akkadian province until ca. 2240 BCE, when its governor, Kutik-Inshushinak, rose up in rebellion and liberated it, making it a literary center. Following this, the city was conquered by the neo-Sumerian Ur-III dynasty, and held until Ur finally collapsed at the hands of the Elamites under Kindattu in ca. 2004 BCE. At this time, Susa became an Elamite capital under the Epartid dynasty, and in 1400 BCE, of the Igihalkid dynasty that "Elamaized" Šušan.^[3] The Elamites under Shutruk-Nahhunte plundered the original stele bearing the Code of Hammurabi, the world's first known written laws,^[4] in ca. 1175 BCE and took it to Susa. Archeologists found it in 1901. Nebuchadnezzar I of the Babylonian empire plundered Susa around fifty years later.

Assyrians[link]

Ashurbanipal's brutal campaign against Susa in 647 BCE is recorded in this relief. Flames rise from the city as Assyrian soldiers topple it with pickaxes and crowbars and carry off the spoils.

In 647 BCE, the Assyrian king Assurbanipal leveled the city during a war in which the people of Susa participated on the other side. A tablet unearthed in 1854 by Austen Henry Layard in Nineveh reveals Ashurbanipal as an "avenger", seeking retribution for the humiliations the Elamites had inflicted on the Mesopotamians over the centuries:

"Susa, the great holy city, abode of their gods, seat of their mysteries, I conquered. I entered its palaces, I opened their treasuries where silver and gold, goods and wealth were amassed... I destroyed the ziggurat of Susa. I smashed its shining copper horns. I reduced the temples of Elam to naught; their gods and goddesses I scattered to the winds. The tombs of their ancient and recent kings I devastated, I exposed to the sun, and I carried away their bones toward the land of Ashur. I devastated the provinces of Elam and on their lands I sowed salt."^[5]

Susa after Persian conquest[link]

Achaemenid period[link]

Susa underwent a major political and ethnocultural transition when it became part of the Persian Achaemenid empire between 540-539 BCE when it was captured by Cyrus the Great during his conquest of Elam (Susiana), of which Susa was the capital.^[6] The Nabonidus Chronicle records that, prior to the battle(s), Nabonidus had ordered cult statues from outlying Babylonian cities to be brought into the capital, suggesting that the conflict over Susa had begun possibly in the winter of 540 BCE. ^[7] It is probable that Cyrus engaged in negotiations with the Babylonian generals to obtain a compromise on their part and therefore avoid an armed confrontation.^[8] Nabonidus was staying in the city at the time and soon fled to the capital, Babylon, which he had not visited in years.^[9] Cyrus' conquest of Susa and the rest of Babylonia commenced a fundamental shift, bringing Susa under Persian control for the first time.

Under Cyrus' son Cambyses II, Susa became a center of political power as one of 4 capitals of the Achaemenid Persian empire, while reducing the significance of Pasargadae as the capital of Persis. Following Cambyses' brief rule, Darius the Great began a major building program in Susa and Persepolis. During this time he describes his new capital in the DSf inscription: "This palace which I built at Susa, from afar its ornamentation was brought. Downward the earth was dug, until I reached rock in the earth. When the excavation had been made, then rubble was packed down, some 40 cubits in depth, another part 20 cubits in depth. On that rubble the palace was constructed."^[10] Susa continued as a winter capital and residence for Achaemenid kings succeeding Darius the Great, Xerxes I, and their successors.^[11]

The city forms the setting of The Persians (472 BCE), an Athenian tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus that is the oldest surviving play in the history of theatre.

Events mentioned in the Old Testament book of Esther are said to have occurred in Susa during either the Achaemenid or Sassanid periods.

Macedonian, Parthian and Sassanid periods[link]

Susa lost much of its importance when Alexander of Macedon conquered it in 331 BCE and destroyed the first Persian Empire. For approximately one century after Alexander, Susa fell to the Seleucid Empire. After Seleucia it was the biggest city in under Selucid control at the time.^{[citation needed]} Susa used Charax Spasinou as its port. It retained a considerable amount of independence and retained its Greek city state organization well into the ensuing Parthian period and seems to have gained independence under a dynasty whose kings bore the name of Kamnaskires in the 1st century CE. ^[12]

When the Parthian Empire gained its independence from the Seleucid Empire, and took control of much of its eastern provinces, Susa was made one of the two capitals (along with Ctesiphon) of the new state.

Susa became a frequent place of refuge for Parthian and later, the Persian Sassanid kings, as the Romans sacked Ctesiphon five different times between 116 and 297 CE (Susa was briefly captured only by Roman emperor Trajan in 116 AD and never again would the Roman Empire advance so far to the east). ^[13]Typically, the Parthian rulers wintered in Susa, and spent the summer in Ctesiphon.

Post-Islamic period and final destruction[link]

Susa was destroyed at least three times in its history. The first was in 647 BCE, by Assurbanipal. The second destruction took place in 638 CE, when the Muslim armies first conquered Persia. Finally, in 1218, the city was completely destroyed by invading Mongols. The ancient city was gradually abandoned in the years that followed.

Susa had a significant Christian population during the first millennium, and was a diocese of the Church of the East between the 5th and 13th centuries, in the metropolitan province of Beth Huzaye (Elam).

Archaeology[link]

Site of Susa

The site was examined in 1836 by Henry Rawlinson and then by A. H. Layard.^[14] In 1851, some modest excavation was done by William Loftus, who identified it as Susa.^[15] In 1885 and 1886 Marcel-Auguste Dieulafoy and Jane Dieulafoy began the first French excavations.^[16]

Jacques de Morgan conducted major excavations from 1897 until 1911. These efforts continued under Roland De Mecquenem until 1914, at the beginning of World War I. French work at Susa resumed after the war, led by De Mecquenem, continuing until World War II in 1940.^{[17] [18][19]} Archaeological results from the later period were very thinly published and attempts are underway to remedy this situation.^[20]

Roman Ghirshman took over direction of the French efforts in 1946, after the end of the war. He continued there until 1967. Ghirshman concentrated on excavating a single part of the site, the hectare sized Ville Royale, taking it all the way down to bare earth.^[21] The pottery found at the various levels enabled a stratigraphy to be developed for Susa.^[22][23]

During the 1970s, excavations resumed under Jean Perrot.^[24][25]

Images[link]

• 

  Letter in Greek of the Parthian king Artabanus III to the inhabitants of Susa in the 1st century CE (the city retained Greek institutions since the time of the Seleucid empire). Louvre Museum.

• 

  Glazed Clay Cup: Cup with rose petals, 8th–9th centuries

• 

  Anthropoid sarcophagus

• 

  Lion on a decorative panel from Darius I the Great's palace

• 

  Glazed Clay Vase: Vase with palmtrees, 8th–9th centuries

• 

  Susa section, Louvre museum, Paris

• 

  Winged sphinx from the palace of Darius the Great at Susa.

• 

  Tomb of Daniel

• 

  Ninhursag with the spirit of the forests next to the seven-spiked cosmic tree of life. Relief from Susa.

• 

  19th-century engraving of Daniel's tomb in Susa, from Voyage en Perse Moderne, by Flandin and Coste.

• 

  Archers frieze from Darius' palace at Susa. Detail of the beginning of the frieze, left. Louvre Museum

See also[link]

• Abulites
• Choqa Zanbil
• Cities of the Ancient Near East
• Elam
• History of Iran
• List of oldest continuously inhabited cities
• Monsieur Chouchani
• Short chronology timeline
• Achaemenid architecture

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Jean Perrot, Le Palais de Darius à Suse. Une résidence royale sur la route de Persépolis à Babylone, Paris, Paris-sorbonne.fr, 2010
• Lendering, Jona. "Susa, capital of Elam". The Iranian Chamber. http://www.iranchamber.com/history/susa/susa.php. Retrieved 2010. 
• Vallat, François. "The History of Elam". The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies (CAIS). 
• Potts, Daniel T. (1999). The archaeology of Elam: formation and transformation of an ancient Iranian state. Cambridge University Press, 1999. pp. 490. ISBN 0-521-56496-4. World Archaeology Series. http://books.google.com/books?id=mc4cfzkRVj4C&source=gbs_navlinks_s. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Susa

• Susa
• Livius.org pictures of Susa
• Aerial views of Susa
• Susa City Home Page
• Digital Images of Cuneiform Tablets from Susa - CDLI
• Hamid-Reza Hosseini, Shush at the foot of Louvre (Shush dar dāman-e Louvre), in Persian, Jadid Online, 10 March 2009, Jadidonline.com.
  Audio slideshow: Jadidonline.com (6 min 31 sec).

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v t e Khuzestan Province Capital Ahvaz Counties (A-K) and Cities Abadan County Abadan Arvandkenar Ahvaz County Ahvaz Hamidiyeh Andika County Qaleh-ye Khvajeh Andimeshk County Andimeshk Hoseyniyeh Bagh-e Malek County Bagh-e Malek Qaleh Tall Seydun Bavi County Mollasani Sheybani Veys Behbahan County Behbahan Aghajari Sardasht Dasht-e Azadegan County Susangerd Bostan Dezful County Dezful Dezab Mianrud Safiabad Saland Gotvand County Gotvand Jannat Makan Haftgel County Haftgel Hendijan County Hendijan Zahreh Hoveyzeh County Hoveyzeh Rafi Izeh County Izeh Dehdez Khorramshahr County Khorramshahr Minushahr Moqavemat Counties (L-Z) and Cities Lali County Lali Mahshahr County Bandar-e Mahshahr Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni Chamran Masjed Soleyman County Masjed Soleyman Omidiyeh County Omidiyeh Jayezan Ramhormoz County Ramhormoz Ramshir County Ramshir Shadegan County Shadegan Shush County Shush Alvan Horr Shushtar County Shushtar Sights Abadan's museum Gundishapur Acropole of Shush Apadana in Susa Arjan castle, Behbahan Asak ancient city, Hendijan Chagadom tappe fire temple Chogha Mish Proto-Elamite site Chogha Zanbil Dav o Dokhtar castle, Ramhormoz Dez Dam Eshkaft-e Salman Gargar bridge, Shushtar Haft Tepe Hoor-al-azim lagoon Imamzadeh Roudband, Dezful Imamzadeh Sabz-e-ghaba, Dezful Karkheh dam Khorramshahr mosque, Battle of Khorramshahr Kul-e Farah lake of Karkheh dam Lake of Karun Lali bridge Meyangaran lagoon Rangooni's mosque Salasel castle, Shushtar Shadegan lagoon Shevi waterfall, Dezful Shush-Daniel Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System Shushtar Watermills Susa Shush Castle Taryana Tobiron valley, Dezful Tomb of Daniel, Shush White bridge, Ahvaz Ya'qub-i Laith's tomb, Dezful