Susa
Susa was an ancient city in the lower Zagros Mountains about east of the Tigris, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers in Iran. It represents the current city of Shush, located on the site of ancient Susa. One of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East, Susa served as the capital of Elam and the winter capital of the Achaemenid Empire, and remained a strategic centre during the Parthian and Sasanian periods.
Name
The name Susa is of Elamite origin and has appeared in many languages:- Middle
- Middle and Neo-
- Neo-Elamite and Achaemenid
- Achaemenid
- or ???
- New
Literary references
Biblical texts
Susa is mentioned in the Ketuvim of the Hebrew Bible by the name Shushan, mainly in the Book of Esther, but also once each in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel. According to these texts, Nehemiah lived in Susa during the Babylonian captivity of the 6th century BC, while Esther became queen there, married to King Ahasuerus, and saved the Jews from genocide. A tomb presumed to be that of Daniel is located in the area, known as Shush-Daniel. However, a large portion of the current structure is actually a much later construction dated to the late nineteenth century,.Ancient Greek Theatre
Susa is the setting for the Aeschylus play, The Persians. The play concerns the repercussions for Xerxes, and Persia, after his failed attempt to conquer Greece at the Battle of Salamis.Pseudepigrapha
Susa is further mentioned in the Book of Jubilees 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 of Elam.Excavation history
The site was examined in 1836 by Henry Rawlinson and then by A. H. Layard.In 1851, some modest excavation was done by William Loftus, accompanied by Fenwick Williams, who identified it as Susa. Among his finds was a jar containing around 110 coins, the earliest of which was dated to 697-98 AD.
In 1885 and 1886 Marcel-Auguste Dieulafoy and Jane Dieulafoy began the first French excavations, discovering glazed bricks, column bases, and capitals from the palace of the Achaemenid kings. However, they failed to identify mudbrick walls, which were then destroyed in the course of excavation. Almost all of the excavations at Susa, post-1885, were organized and authorized by the French government.
In two treaties in 1894 and 1899, the French gained a monopoly on all archaeological excavations in Iran indefinitely. Jacques de Morgan, after visiting the site in 1891, conducted major excavations from 1897 until 1911. The excavations that were conducted in Susa brought many artistic and historical artifacts back to France. These artifacts filled multiple halls in the Museum of the Louvre throughout the late 1890s and early 1900s. De Morgan's most important work was the excavation of the Grande Tranchée in the Acropole mound, where he found the stele of Naram-Sin, a collection of Babylonian kudurrus, the stele bearing the Code of Hammurabi, an ornamented bronze table of snakes, the bronze statue of Queen Napir-Asu, and thousands of inscribed bricks. His finds showed Susa to be the most important center of Elamite civilization, which was effectively discovered by the French mission at Susa.
Excavation 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. To supplement the original publications of De Mecquenem the archives of his excavation have now been put online thanks to a grant from the Shelby White Levy Program.
Roman Ghirshman took over direction of the French efforts in 1946, after the end of the war. Together with his wife Tania Ghirshman, he continued there until 1967. The Ghirshmans concentrated on excavating a single part of the site, the hectare sized Ville Royale, taking it all the way down to bare earth. The pottery found at the various levels enabled a stratigraphy to be developed for Susa.
From 1969 until 1979 excavations were conducted under Jean Perrot.
In 2019 the Susa salvage project was launched to counter the construction of a transportation underpass in the vicinity of the site.
History
Early settlement
In urban history, Susa is one of the oldest-known settlements of the region. Based on calibrated carbon-14 dating, the foundation of a settlement there occurred as early as 4200 BC. In the region around Susa were a number of towns and villages that maintained a trading relationship with the city, especially those along the Zagro frontier.The founding of Susa corresponded with the abandonment of nearby villages. Potts suggests that the settlement may have been founded to try to reestablish the previously destroyed settlement at Chogha Mish, about 25 km to the west. Previously, Chogha Mish was a very large settlement, and it featured a similar massive platform that was later built at Susa.
Another important settlement in the area is Chogha Bonut, which was discovered in 1976.
Susa I period (4200–3800 BC)
Shortly after Susa was first settled over 6000 years ago, its inhabitants erected a monumental platform that rose over the flat surrounding landscape. The exceptional nature of the site is still recognizable today in the artistry of the ceramic vessels that were placed as offerings in a thousand or more graves near the base of the temple platform.Susa's earliest settlement is known as the Susa I period. Two settlements named by archaeologists the Acropolis and the Apadana, would later merge to form Susa proper. The Apadana was enclosed by 6 metre thick walls of rammed earth.
Nearly two thousand pots of Susa I style were recovered from the cemetery, most of them now in the Louvre. The vessels found attest to the artistic and technical achievements of their makers, and they hold clues about the organization of the society that commissioned them.
Painted ceramic vessels from Susa in the earliest first style are a late, regional version of the Mesopotamian Ubaid ceramic tradition that spread across the Near East during the fifth millennium BC. Susa I style was very much a product of the past and of influences from contemporary ceramic industries in the mountains of western Iran. The recurrence in close association of vessels of three types—a drinking goblet or beaker, a serving dish, and a small jar—implies the consumption of three types of food, apparently thought to be as necessary for life in the afterworld as it is in this one. Ceramics of these shapes, which were painted, constitute a large proportion of the vessels from the cemetery. Others are coarse cooking-type jars and bowls with simple bands painted on them and were probably the grave goods of the sites of humbler citizens as well as adolescents and, perhaps, children. The pottery is carefully made by hand. Although a slow wheel may have been employed, the asymmetry of the vessels and the irregularity of the drawing of encircling lines and bands indicate that most of the work was done freehand.
Metallurgy
Copper metallurgy is also attested during this period, which was contemporary with metalwork at some highland Iranian sites such as Tepe Sialk.As many as 40 copper axes have been found at the Susa cemetery, as well as 10 round discs probably used as mirrors. Many awls and spatulas were also found.
The cemetery of Chega Sofla, from the same timeframe, provides a lot of similar material, with many sophisticated metal objects. Chega Sofla is located in the same geographical area.
Ceramic objects
Susa II and Uruk influence (3800–3100 BC)
Susa came 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. The comparative periodization of Susa and Uruk at this time remains disputed among scholars with some research indicating that Early Uruk period corresponds to Susa II period.The nature and extent of Uruk influence in Susa is also disputed. Daniel T. Potts argues that the influence from the highland Iranian Khuzestan area in Susa was more significant at the early period, and also continued later on. Thus, Susa combined the influence of two cultures, from the highland area and from the alluvial plains. Potts also stresses that Susa did not simply borrow the writing and numerical systems of Uruk wholesale, but were adopted only partially and selectively as needed.
Uruk was far larger than Susa at the time, raising questions about its influence. Some scholars believe that Susa was part of the greater Uruk culture. Holly Pittman, an art historian at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia says, "the Susanians are participating entirely in an Uruk way of life. They are not culturally distinct; the material culture of Susa is a regional variation of that on the Mesopotamian plain".
Others emphasize Susa's relative independence. They deny that Susa was a colony of Uruk: it maintained some independence for a long time, according to Potts. An architectural link has also been suggested between Susa, Tal-i Malyan, and Godin Tepe at this time, in support of the idea of the parallel development of the Proto-Cuneiform and proto-elamite scripts. Gilbert Stein, director of the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, notes that "An expansion once thought to have lasted less than 200 years now apparently went on for 700 years. It is hard to think of any colonial system lasting that long. The spread of Uruk material is not evidence of Uruk domination; it could be local choice".