Elam - Early Sukkalmah

  General Description   Women in Elam
"with the rise of the nuclear family by the end of the third millennium ... daughters attained equal inheritance rights with sons. Sometimes fathers even preferred to pass on their entire estates to their daughters rather than to their sons. A wide’s share of her husband’s estate also increased considerably in the later Elamite period." ^[1]
Succession "sometimes passed from a man to his sister’s son. Succession through the sister suggests that royal women had greater political power than did royal women in Mesopotamia." ^[2]
queen Nahhunte-utu of Elam "married two of her own brothers" and passed her claim to the throne to her eldest son. Also evidence for next-of-kin marriage within the royal family." ^[2]
"Hinz argues that even after the sister’s son was no longer the major heir to the throne, brother-sister marriage did not disappear but continued until the end of the Elamite period, when ’even provincial rulers followed the "family custom" of Elamite kings in marrying their sisters." ^[2]


c1800 BCE? "the Elamite sukkal-mah, who invaded Mesopotamia. At first Mari and Babylon supported Elam in its siege of their old rival Eshnunna. However, the situation completely changed when Elam threatened Babylon and the Sinjar region. This lead to the formation of a coalition between Mari and Babylon, along with their allies Larsa, Yamhad, Zalmaqum and all the kings in the Jezira. Within a few years, Elam was forced to retreat, although it still managed to plunder Eshnunna." ^[3]
"The documentation on Elam predominantly comes from Susa. The city had a central role as the residence of the sukkal-mah, but also a marginal one from an Elamite perspective due to its proximity to the Lower Mesopotamian border. Therefore, it is hypothetically possible that other Elamite regions and cities had a similar triad of offices, sharing the same sukkal-mah, but with different people in the other two roles." ^[4]
"the Sukkal-mah Dynasty replaced the one of Shimashki perhaps as a repercussion of the incursion of Gungunum of Larsa against Susa. Eparti and Shilhaka, founders of the new dynasty, took on the title of ’king of Anshan and Susa’ and made Susa their capital." ^[4]
"Elam remained politically independent from the Mesopotamian kingdoms and even relatively superior to them. During the Mari Age, the sukkal-mah (probably Shiruduh I) was engage in diplomatic and commercial relations with Mari and even more distant Qatna. ... Elam’s influence extended all over the Zagros, reaching Shemshara, which was very close to Assyria. At the death of Shamshi-Adad ... the anti-Babylonian front along the Tigris was under the supremacy of Elam. Hammurabi’s victory, however, helped in lowering the expansionistic ambitions ... The Babylonians never conquered Elam and the local dynasty continued to rule, leaving only Susiana vulnerable to the consequences of the military developments taking place in Mesopotamia." ^[4]
"Just like in the rest of the Near East, even in the case of Elam there is a lack of documentation for the sixteenth century BC." ^[4]
"At the time of the sukkal-mah, the choice of Susa as capital showed a clear intention of becoming a constitutive part of the Mesopotamian political system and of Babylonian culture." ^[5]
Babylonian official language at this time: "The official language (also for royal inscriptions) was once again Elamite, and not Babylonian, as it had been before the dark age." ^[5]
"Among the major administrative achievements of the Elamite Iran were the development and management of a gigantic system of underground irrigation, qanats, an earlier Iranian invention turning an unworked country into an agricultural land; the invention and development of the written language of Elamite and its extensive use in the administration of the federated state; and the construction and maintenance of numerous public enterprises like roads, bridges, cities and towns, communication centers, and economic trade centers with the neighboring states. Elamite Iran was relatively prosperous because of its rich minerals and precious metals, as well as other industries and arts." ^[6]
"The earliest experiences of state tradition and administrative functions on a massive scale began around 6000 B.C. in Susa. As one of the oldest sites of ancient civilization, Susa began political and administrative life first as a city-state contemporary and rival to Sumer in the Mesopotamia, then as the capital of one of the oldest empires of antiquity, Elam. Established in the late fourth millennium B.C., the Elamite Empire was the first Iranian experience in empire building and state tradition. ... the federated state of Elam practiced public administration ... The federal system of Elam was composed of several major kingdoms (the Kassite, the Guti, the Lullubi, Susiana, and Elamite), all being of the same racial group of the pre-Aryan people. The Elamite over-lordship in Susa was the main power of the federated states, the heads of which frequently assembled for political and military purposes. Decision making wa based on equality, and cooperation was key to the coordinated system of government in a federal structure." ^[7]
"While internal independence of the member states was respected, intergovernmental relations on civil administration were regulated by various administrative rules and ordinances." ^[6]
16th-14th centuries BCE: The Elamites were concentrated in the Susiana plain but maintained their ancestral ties with the highlands, where Anshan was progressively deserted." ^[8]
The Elamite polity was ruled by three main officials: sukkalmah (grand regent, grand vizier), sukkal of Elam and Shimaski (usually brother of the sukkalmah) and sukkal of Susa (prince, heir to the throne). The power was transmitted inside the royal family. The marriages between brothers and sisters were common practices in Old Elamite Period. When the sukkalmah died, his younger brother became a king, the next was sukkalmah’s son or son of sukkal of Elam and Shimaski ^[9]

[1]: (Nashat 2003, 14-15) Nashat, Guity. Women in Pre-Islamic and Early Islamic Iran. in Nashat, Guity. Beck, Lois. eds. 2003. Women in Iran: From The Rise Of Islam To 1800. University of Illinois Press. Urbana.

[2]: (Nashat 2003, 15) Nashat, Guity. Women in Pre-Islamic and Early Islamic Iran. in Nashat, Guity. Beck, Lois. eds. 2003. Women in Iran: From The Rise Of Islam To 1800. University of Illinois Press. Urbana.

[3]: (Leverani 2014, 229) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London.

[4]: (Leverani 2014, 254) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London.

[5]: (Leverani 2014, 376) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London.

[6]: (Farazmand 2001, 536) Farazmand, Ali in Farazmand, Ali ed. 2001. Handbook of Comparative and Development Public Administration. Marcel Dekker, Inc. New York.

[7]: (Farazmand 2001, 535) Farazmand, Ali in Farazmand, Ali ed. 2001. Handbook of Comparative and Development Public Administration. Marcel Dekker, Inc. New York.

[8]: (Amiet, Chevalier and Carter 1992, 9) Amiet, Pierre. Chevalier, Nicole. Carter, Elizabeth. in Harper, Prudence O. Aruz, Joan. Tallon, Francoise. eds. 1992. The Royal City of Susa: Ancient Near Eastern Treasures in the Louvre. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[9]: Liverani 2014, 253