Elam was an ancient civilization in what is now southwestern Iran, centred on the lowland plain of Susiana, with its main city at Susa, and on the highlands of Anshan in the Zagros Mountains. Its people spoke Elamite, a language unrelated to those of its Mesopotamian neighbours, and they developed an early script before adopting cuneiform. For centuries Elam was a rival and sometimes a conqueror of Mesopotamian powers, and its armies are credited with the sack of Ur. The Assyrian king Ashurbanipal devastated Susa in the seventh century BCE, and Elam never recovered as an independent state. Its heartland was later absorbed into the Persian Empire, where Elamite remained an important language of administration.
Before and after
- from c. 3,000 BCE to 2,240 BCEEbla
- from 30th century BCE to 18th century BCEMari
- from c. 2,890 BCE to 2,686 BCESecond Dynasty of Egypt
- from c. 2,707 BCE to 2,216 BCEOld Kingdom of Egypt
- from c. 2,700 BCE to 539 BCEElam
- c. 2,700 BCEConstruction of Bent Pyramid
- from c. 2,686 BCE to 2,613 BCEThird Dynasty of Egypt
- c. 2,640 BCEConstruction of Pyramid of Djoser
- from c. 2,613 BCE to 2,498 BCEFourth Dynasty of Egypt
More in Civilizations & archaeology
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- from 8th century BCE to 3rd centuryClassical antiquity
- from 351 BCE to 1494Construction of Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
- from 323 BCE to 30 BCEHellenistic period
- 248 BCEConstruction of Terracotta Army
- from 375 CE to 568 CEMigration Period
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires. You can also browse everything in the 27th century BCE.