The Lost Civilisation of Elam

For more than two thousand years, Elamite rulers, scribes and communities shaped southwestern Iran while negotiating, resisting and repeatedly defeating the great powers of Mesopotamia. Explore Elam through rulers, cities, warfare, belief, trade and ordinary life. This illustrated history follows the evidence across the Susiana plain, the Zagros highlands, Anshan, Susa, the Iranian plateau and the routes connecting Mesopotamia to the east, distinguishes contemporary records from later legend and explains why political change affected regions and communities differently. Clear chronology, maps, genuine historical images, source studies, a glossary and balanced discussion make a complex ancient world accessible without sacrificing uncertainty or historical depth. Drawing on Proto-Elamite tablets, Elamite and Mesopotamian inscriptions, seals, sculpture, architecture, settlement archaeology and objects dispersed through museum collections, Murat Smith reconstructs political power alongside the people, resources and institutions that sustained it.