FIRST PART

THE ART OF IRAN PREISLAMIC

The Elam and the renewal of its greatness

For long centuries, while Babylon was endowed with common political institutions with the flourishing communities of Palestine and the Mediterranean Levant, the Elam remained in fact cut off from the outside world. In the thirteenth and twelfth centuries a. C., however, while the fortunes of the Babylonians began to decline, offering the possibility of an elamite rebirth and a restoration of the greatness of Elam, a new dynasty took charge of its destiny. The elamite princes wrote their texts in the Elamite language, in a simplified cuneiform adapted to the language. This linguistic superiority, still lacking a proper literature, determined a kind of patriotism whose roots went back to the ethnic traditions. The Elamite civilization of this period had a close kinship with the Hurrian civilization; among the affinities, the taste for enamel decoration, of the kind you see in Nuzi, and also the funeral rites of the princes, which were the only ones to be buried (one wonders however if these principles were really related to the Hurriti who lived north of the plateau). They tried to consolidate their imperial institutions with other governments, calling this process "development" or "enlargement". This type of relationship was established with Enshan, in the current Fars, and with the island of Bushehr, in the Persian Gulf.

To achieve these goals, Entash-Napirisha (1275-1240 BC), founded a new city in the current Khuzestan, in the Chogha Zanbil region, not far from Susa. The inhabitants of all the cities of the region could venerate and worship their gods in the temples that stood around the main temple, dedicated to the god of Susa Inshushinak and to the god of the city of Enshan, Napirisha. In the beginning, the building consisted of a square base with a garden in the middle. When the sovereign was certain of the future of his reign, he decided to give new grandeur to the temple, transforming it into a multi-storey tower. The transformation took place by the addition of four full volumes, one inside the other, connected by a vertical staircase hidden by vaults that led to the top floor, which was the actual temple. The complex was decorated with enamelled bricks and spheres. The building was fifty-two meters high, half the side of its base and its profile was more slender than that of the classical Sumeric ziggurat. The temple inside the first level remained of the original building; a wall delimited this first complex, while another wall described a larger space, part of which housed other temples dedicated to the spouses of the various national deities. The sacred hall was a cubic construction separate from the other temples and located in the middle of a garden. This was a Sumerian tradition, adopted for some time by the Semitic people: the Ka'ba, in Mecca, is an example of this same tradition. A third wall bordered the city itself, in which houses were never built. In the vicinity of the large entrance door, called the "Gate of Justice", as the king used to sit there to administer justice, some buildings were built around one, two or more gardens. They were not built on the basis of particular projects or specific designs, a characteristic that leads one to think that they were intended for the residence of princes. One of these buildings was used for the burial of a prince and his family.

These rituals, also present at the Hurriti and the Hittites (other Aryan peoples), probably had to do with the sacralization of the fire, which took place in a temple very close to the palace, completely different from the other temples, whose altar was in an open room without a ceiling. These rituals, in use among the Iranian peoples before being introduced into Elam, are of particular importance, since they let us presume that it is perhaps through the Elamites or some migrant people who were introduced to the Iranians.

The founder of the city is represented on the basal stone in front of his god, together with the priestess Napirasu and her husband. There is also a life-size bronze statue of Napirasu, which testifies to the skill achieved in the melting of metals in Elam, and at the same time demonstrates the high status of the Elamite woman.

The peak of the Elamite power was reached in the twelfth century, when a warrior king, Shutruk-Nahunte, took over the reins of the state and his two sons Kutir-Nahunte and Shilhak-Inshushinak, tenacious as their father, ruled the territory. These princes devastated Babylon, putting an end to the Cassite government over the city. Instead of completely annihilating the city, they brought a rich war booty to Susa, which included numerous works of art; masterpieces of Mesopotamian art were brought to temples built inside the citadel of Susa: basal stones of temples, statues of Akkadian rulers, some copies of the Hammurabi code, a series of official cassitic incisions containing lists of offerings of kings to temples, and many other wonders. Besides the code, one of these wonders represents a king who worships his god; the face of the king had been canceled, and replaced with that of the ruling sovereign at the time, an angry face, hard and certainly not worthy of praise. This image also shows the harshness that characterized the Elamite language and illustrates a part of their civilization. Nevertheless, this art is in patent contradiction with the previous one, in which the king's face was laughing, and the features show a gentle nature, and a surprising nobility and originality.

The king and his two sons built a temple covered in green and yellow enamelled bricks. The mastery of the enamelling technique was not easy or quick; the drawings on the enamel coating show a royal couple, reminiscent of the dynasty.

The two sons of Shutruk-Nahunte built another temple that had no enamel coating. This temple reproduces a sacred and mythological wood, defended by two half-man and half-ox beings alongside a blessing goddess. A similar forest must have existed in the neighborhood of Susa and the trees that populated it are visible on the bronze miniature reproduction of a temple, built for the adoration of the sun.

All the kings of Elam, like Untash-Parisha, were buried in underground chambers near the temple of Inshushinak. These tombs have allowed us to find artistic artifacts in large quantities and refined workmanship, some of which are produced with surprising technical ability and an unusual variety. The silver and gold statuettes reveal the great depth of Elamite art; some of them have links with the Sumerian humanism, while others show the joyousness of the Elamite soul. Some of the gold and bronze artifacts of the Elam are very similar to artifacts produced in central Iran: one wonders if these similarities are proof of the influence of Elam on Iran or whether it was the Elam take them as a reference. One can answer that the Elamite works are produced with such skill and technical skill that it was undoubtedly Iran that imitated the Elam; and yet, in imitation, the Iranian artists sought to make changes and innovations that reached perfection seven centuries later in Achaemenian art.