The language is not represented by any idioms now spoken, and its affinities with the Sumerian which some writers have attempted to establish, are too uncertain to make it safe to base any theory upon them.*
* A great part of the Susian inscriptions have been
collected by Fr. Lenormant. An attempt has been made to
identify the language in which they are written with the
Sumero-accadian, and authorities now generally agree in
considering the Arcæmenian inscriptions of the second type
as representative of its modern form. Hommel connects it
with Georgian, and includes it in a great linguistic family,
which comprises, besides these two idioms, the Hittite, the
Cappadocian, the Armenian of the Van inscriptions, and the
Cosstean. Oppert claims to have discovered on a tablet in
the British Museum a list of words belonging to one of the
idioms (probably Semitic) of Susiana, which differs alike
from the Suso-Medic and the Assyrian.
The little that we know of Elamite religion reveals to us a mysterious world, full of strange names and vague forms. Over their hierarchy there presided a deity who was called Shushinak (the Susian), Dimesh or Samesh, Dagbag, As-siga, Adaene, and possibly Khumba and Æmmân, whom the Chaldæns identified with their god Ninip; his statue was concealed in a sanctuary inaccessible to the profane, but it was dragged from thence by Assurbanipal of Nineveh in the VIIth century B.C.* This deity was associated with six others of the first rank, who were divided into two triads—Shumudu, Lagamaru, Partikira; Ammankasibar, Uduran, and Sapak: of these names, the least repellent, Ammankasibar, may possibly be the Memnon of the Greeks. The dwelling of these divinities was near Susa, in the depths of a sacred forest to which the priests and kings alone had access: their images were brought out on certain days to receive solemn homage, and were afterwards carried back to their shrine accompanied by a devout and reverent multitude. These deities received a tenth of the spoil after any successful campaign—the offerings comprising statues of the enemies’ gods, valuable vases, ingots of gold and silver, furniture, and stuffs. The Elamite armies were well organized, and under a skilful general became irresistible. In other respects the Elamites closely resembled the Chaldæans, pursuing the same industries and having the same agricultural and commercial instincts. In the absence of any bas-reliefs and inscriptions peculiar to this people, we may glean from the monuments of Lagash and Babylon a fair idea of the extent of their civilization in its earliest stages.
* Shushinak is an adjective derived from the name of the
town of Susa. The real name of the god was probably kept
secret and rarely uttered. The names which appear by the
side of Shushinak in the text published by H. Rawlinson, as
equivalents of the Babylonian Ninip, perhaps represent
different deities; we may well ask whether the deity may not
be the Khumba, Umma, Ummân, who recurs so frequently in the
names of men and places, and who has hitherto never been met
with alone in any formula or dedicatory tablet.
The cities of the Euphrates, therefore, could have been sensible of but little change, when the chances of war transferred them from the rule of their native princes to that of an Elamite. The struggle once over, and the resulting evils repaired as far as practicable, the people of these towns resumed their usual ways, hardly conscious of the presence of their foreign ruler. The victors, for their part, became assimilated so rapidly with the vanquished, that at the close of a generation or so the conquering dynasty was regarded legitimate and national one, loyally attached to the traditions and religion of its adopted country. In the year 2285 B.C., towards the close of the reign of Nurrammân, or in the earlier part of that of Siniddinam, a King of Elam, by name Kudur-nakhunta, triumphantly marched through Chaldæa from end to end, devastating the country and sparing neither town nor temple: Uruk lost its statue of Nana, which was carried off as a trophy and placed in the sanctuary of Susa. The inhabitants long mourned the detention of their goddess, and a hymn of lamentation, probably composed for the occasion by one of their priests, kept the remembrance of the disaster fresh in their memories. “Until when, oh lady, shall the impious enemy ravage the country!—In thy queen-city, Uruk, the destruction is accomplished,—in Eulbar, the temple of thy oracle, blood has flowed like water,—upon the whole of thy lands has he poured out flame, and it is spread abroad like smoke.—Oh, lady, verily it is hard for me to bend under the yoke of misfortune!—? Oh, lady, thou hast wrapped me about, thou hast plunged me, in sorrow!—The impious mighty one has broken me in pieces like a reèd,—and I know not what to resolve, I trust not in myself,—like a bed of reeds I sigh day and night!—I, thy servant, I bow myself before thee!” It would appear that the whole of Chaldæa, including Babylon itself, was forced to acknowledge the supremacy of the invader;* a Susian empire thus absorbed Chaldæa, reducing its states to feudal provinces, and its princes to humble vassals. Kudur-nakhunta having departed, the people of Larsa exerted themselves to the utmost to repair the harm that he had done, and they succeeded but too well, since their very prosperity was the cause only a short time after of the outburst of another storm. Siniddinam, perhaps, desired to shake off the Elamite yoke. Simtishilkhak, one of the successors of Kudur-nakhunta, had conceded the principality of Yamutbal as a fief to Kudur-mabug, one of his sons. Kudur-mabug appears to have been a conqueror of no mean ability, for he claims, in his inscriptions, the possession of the whole of Syria.**
* The submission of Babylon is evident from the title Adda
Martu, “sovereign of the West,” assumed by several of the
Elamite princes (of. p. 65 of the present work): in order to
extend his authority beyond the Euphrates, it was necessary
for the King of Elam to be first of all master of Babylon.
In the early days of Assyriology it was supposed that this
period of Elamite supremacy coincided with the Median
dynasty of Berosus.
** His preamble contains the titles adda Martu, “prince of
Syria;” adda lamutbal, “prince of Yamutbal.” The word
adda seems properly to mean “lather,” and the literal
translation of the full title would probably be “father of
Syria,” “father of Yamutbal,” whence the secondary
meanings “master, lord, prince,” which have been
provisionally accepted by most Assyriologists. Tiele, and
Winckler after him, have suggested that Martu is here
equivalent to Yamutbal, and that it was merely used to
indicate the western part of Elam; Winckler afterwards
rejected this hypothesis, and has come round to the general
opinion.
He obtained a victory over Siniddinam, and having dethroned him, placed the administration of the kingdom in the hands of his own son Eimsin. This prince, who was at first a feudatory, afterwards associated in the government with his father, and finally sole monarch after the latter’s death, married a princess of Chaldæan blood, and by this means legitimatized his usurpation in the eyes of his subjects. His domain, which lay on both sides of the Tigris and of the Euphrates, comprised, besides the principality of Yamutbal, all the towns dependent on Sumer and Accad—Uru, Larsa, Uruk, and Nippur, He acquitted himself as a good sovereign in the sight of gods and men: he repaired the brickwork in the temple of Nannar at Uru; he embellished the temple of Shamash at Larsa, and caused two statues of copper to be cast in honour of the god; he also rebuilt Lagash and Grirsu. The city of Uruk had been left a heap of ruins after the withdrawal of Kudur-nakhunta: he set about the work of restoration, constructed a sanctuary to Papsukal, raised the ziggurât of Nana, and consecrated to the goddess an entire set of temple furniture to replace that carried off by the Elamites. He won the adhesion of the priests by piously augmenting their revenues, and throughout his reign displayed remarkable energy. Documents exist which attribute to him the reduction of Durilu, on the borders of Elam and the Chaldæan states; others contain discreet allusions to a perverse enemy who disturbed his peace in the north, and whom he successfully repulsed. He drove Sinmuballit out of Ishin, and this victory so forcibly impressed his contemporaries, that they made it the starting-point of a new semi-official era; twenty-eight years after the event, private contracts still continued to be dated by reference to the taking of Ishin. Sinmuballit’s son, Khammurabi, was more fortunate. Eimsin vainly appealed for help against him to his relative and suzerain Kudur-lagamar, who had succeeded Simtishilkhak at Susa. Eimsin was defeated, and disappeared from the scene of action, leaving no trace behind him, though we may infer that he took refuge in his fief of Yamutbal. The conquest by Khammurabi was by no means achieved at one blow, the enemy offering an obstinate resistance. He was forced to destroy several fortresses, the inhabitants of which had either risen against him or had refused to do him homage, among them being those of Meîr* and Malgu. When the last revolt had been put down, all the countries speaking the language of Chaldæa and sharing its civilization were finally united into a single kingdom, of which Khammurabi proclaimed himself the head. Other princes who had preceded him had enjoyed the same opportunities, but their efforts had never been successful in establishing an empire of any duration; the various elements had been bound together for a moment, merely to be dispersed again after a short interval. The work of Khammurabi, on the contrary, was placed on a solid foundation, and remained unimpaired under his successors. Not only did he hold sway without a rival in the south as in the north, but the titles indicating the rights he had acquired over Sumer and Accad were inserted in his Protocol after those denoting his hereditary possessions,—the city of Bel and the four houses of the world. Khammurabi’s victory marks the close of those long centuries of gradual evolution during which the peoples of the Lower Euphrates passed from division to unity. Before his reign there had been as many states as cities, and as many dynasties as there were states; after him there was but one kingdom under one line of kings.
* Maîru, Meîr, has been identified with Shurippak; but it
is, rather, the town of Mar, now Tell-Id. A and Lagamal, the
Elamite Lagamar, were worshipped there. It was the seat of a
linen manufacture, and possessed large shipping.
Khammurabi’s long reign of fifty-five years has hitherto yielded us but a small number of monuments—seals, heads of sceptres, alabaster vases, and pompous inscriptions, scarcely any of them being of historical interest. He was famous for the number of his campaigns, no details of which, however, have come to light, but the dedication of one of his statues celebrates his good fortune on the battlefield. “Bel has lent thee sovereign majesty: thou, what awaitest thou?—Sin has lent thee royalty: thou, what awaitest thou?—Ninip has lent thee his supreme weapon: thou, what awaitest thou?—The goddess of light, Ishtar, has lent thee the shock of arms and the fray: thou, what awaitest thou?—Shamash and Bamman are thy varlets: thou, what awaitest thou?—It is Khammurabi, the king, the powerful chieftain—who cuts the enemies in pieces,—the whirlwind of battle—who overthrows the country of the rebels—who stays combats, who crushes rebellions,—who destroys the stubborn like images of clay,—who overcomes the obstacles of inaccessible mountains.” The majority of these expeditions were, no doubt, consequent on the victory which destroyed the power of Kimsin. It would not have sufficed merely to drive back the Elamites beyond the Tigris; it was necessary to strike a blow within their own territory to avoid a recurrence of hostilities, which might have endangered the still recent work of conquest. Here, again, Khammurabi seems to have met with his habitual success.