ABSTRACT
The Middle Elamite period is especially represented at Tall-e Malyan, the ancient city of Anshan, in the Operation EDD where a large burned building with a central courtyard surrounded by rooms and corridors was brought to light on the highest part of the mound. An administration requires a hierarchy of officials, a decision-making chain, means of communication, shared protocols for transferring commodities, a structured space, and a calendar. The pottery found on the floor of level IVa is similar to that of Susa Ville Royale II level 10, which is dated to the end of the Middle Elamite period. The language of the Elamite tablets shows the influence of Old Persian in lexicon and syntax, so strong that Ilya Gershevitch considered it as an alloglottography of Old Persian. The language switch from Akkadian to Elamite around 1400 BCE may be a ghost phenomenon, that is, the result of a positivist fallacy.
