Susa

 

(sū'zə, –sə) , ancient city, capital of Elam. The site is 15 mi (23 km) SW of modern Dizful, Iran. It is the biblical Shushan, and its inhabitants were called Susanchites. From the 4th millennium B.C., Elam was under the cultural influence of Mesopotamia. Excavations at Susa uncovered the stele of Naram-sin and the code of Hammurabi, which were among the many art objects carried off by the Elamites from Babylonia. Destroyed in the 7th cent. B.C. by Assurbanipal, Susa was revived in the empire of the Achaemenid rulers of Persia. Darius I and Artaxerxes I built magnificent winter palaces in the city. Susa was later thoroughly Hellenized and continued prominent in the Roman Empire.

Coordinates: 32.18922° N 48.257785° E

Susa Location of the city of Susa, Iran

Susa (in Persian: شوش Shush) is a city in the Khuzestan province of Iran. It had an estimated population of 64,960 in 2005.^[1]

History

Susa (Biblical Hebrew: שושן‎ (Shushan); also Greek: Σέλεύχεια, transliterated as Seleukeia or Seleukheia; Latin Seleucia ad Eulaeum; modern Shush) was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian and Parthian empires of Iran, located about 150 miles east of the Tigris River.

Susa is one of the oldest-known settlements of the region and indeed the world, possibly founded about 4000 BCE (See List of oldest continuously inhabited cities); although the first traces of an inhabited village have been dated to ca. 7000 BCE. Evidence of a painted-pottery civilization has been dated to ca. 5000 BCE.

In historic times, Susa was the primary capital of the Elamite Empire. Its name in Elamite was written variously Šušan, Šušun, etc. The city appears in the very earliest Sumerian records, eg. 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, mainly in Esther, but also once each in Nehemiah and Daniel. Both Daniel and Nehemiah lived in Susa during the Babylonian captivity of Judah 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 Magen 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 Elab bjb n m.

Šušan was incorporated by Sargon the Great into his Akkadian Empire in approximately 2330 BC. It remained capital of an Akkadian province until ca. 2240 BC, when its Elamite governor, Kutik-Inshushinak, rose up in rebellion and liberated it, making it a literary center. However, following this, the city was again 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 BC. At this time Susa again became an Elamite capital.

The Elamites under Shutruk-Nahhunte plundered the original stele bearing the Code of Hammurabi in ca. 1175 BC and took it to Susa, where it was found in 1901. However, Nebuchadrezzar I of the Babylonian empire managed to plunder Susa in return, around fifty years later.

Assyrians

Main article: Battle of Susa

In 647 BCE, the Assyrian king Assurbanipal leveled the city during a war in which the people of Susa apparently 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."^[2]

The city was taken by the Achaemenid Persians under Cyrus the Great in 538 BCE. Under Cyrus' son Cambyses II, the capital of the empire moved from Pasargadae to Susa.

The city lost some of its importance when Alexander of Macedon conquered it in 331 BCE and destroyed the first Persian Empire. After Alexander, Susa fell to the Seleucid Empire and was renamed Seleukeia.

Parthian period

Approximately one century later when Parthia gained its independence from the Seleucid Empire, 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. Typically, the Parthian rulers wintered in Susa, and spent the summer in Ctesiphon.

The Roman emperor Trajan captured Susa in 116, but was soon forced to withdraw, because of revolts to his rear. This advance marked the easternmost penetration by the Romans.

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.

Contemporary Susa

Recently, the site has been threatened by illegal excavations, garbage dumping by the local authorities and a planned bus depot on unexcavated territory nearby.^[3]

As well as being an archaeological site, Susa is also a lively village due to the devotion of Shi'a Muslims and the Persian Jewish community for the prophet Daniel.

Anthropoid sarcophagus

Lion on a decorative panel from Darius I's palace

Islamic art: Vase with palmtrees, 8th–9th centuries

Sources and notes

See also

• susa city web site
• History of Iran
• Code of Hammurabi
• Elam
• Khuzestan
• Choqa Zanbil
• Roman Ghirshman
• Monsieur Chouchani

External links

• Susa City
• Susa
• Livius.org pictures of Susa
• Aerial views of Susa

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