ABSTRACT

The Art of Elam ca. 4200-525 BC offers a view of, and a critical reflection on, the art history of one of the world’s first and least-known civilizations, illuminating a significant chapter of our human past. 

Not unlike a gallery of historical paintings, this comprehensive treatment of the rich heritage of ancient Iran showcases a visual trail of the evolution of human society, with all its leaps and turns, from its origins in the earliest villages of southwest Iran at around 4200 BC to the rise of the Achaemenid Persian empire in ca. 525 BC. Richly illustrated in full colour with 1450 photographs, 190 line drawings, and digital reconstructions of hundreds of artefacts—some of which have never before been published—The Art of Elam goes beyond formal and thematic boundaries to emphasize the religious, political, and social contexts in which art was created and functioned.

Such a magisterial study of Elamite art has never been written making The Art of Elam ca. 4200-525 BC a ground-breaking publication essential to all students of ancient art and to our current understanding of the civilizations of the ancient Near East.

part I|78 pages

Elam before Elam (ca. 4200–2900 bc)

chapter 1|31 pages

The Birth of Susa (ca. 4200–3800 bc)

chapter 2|25 pages

From Village to City (ca. 3800–3100 bc)

chapter 3|20 pages

The Proto-Elamite Period

Susa and the highlands (ca. 3100–2900 bc)

part II|2 pages

The rise of Elam (ca. 2900–1880 bc)

chapter 5|12 pages

Susa And Akkad (ca. 2340–2100 bc)

part III|3 pages

The Golden Age (ca. 1880–1050 bc)

chapter 8|46 pages

The Sukkalmahs

Reign of the “Great Kings” (ca. 1880–1500 bc)

chapter 9|27 pages

The Kidinuid Era (ca. 1500–1400 bc)

chapter 11|44 pages

The Shutrukid House (ca. 1190–1050 bc)

part IV|2 pages

Between Golden Age and Empire (ca. 1050–525 bc)

chapter 12|134 pages

Elam in the First Millennium

Resilience and renaissance

chapter |3 pages

Conclusion

The legacy of Elamite art and its future