In 1982 a bulldozer levelling the ground for a road to a dam on the Marun river, near Behbahan in southwestern Iran, cut through a stone-walled funerary chamber holding a bronze coffin. According to Encyclopaedia Iranica it is a late Neo-Elamite elite burial, ca. 630-550 BCE.
PARALLEL TRACK · Iran (Persia)
Elam: the Middle Elamite and Neo-Elamite periods
A navigation group for Elam in southwestern Iran, about 1500-539 BCE on the Met's timeline, in two periods. It runs in parallel with the Iron Age track of the north and west: the two are contemporary, not consecutive.
Approximately 1500-539 BCEMove through the periods
Its place in the Iran (Persia) scheme
The whole scheme with this period marked; the periods before and after are its neighbours in the row. Boundaries follow the sources and are not to scale.
- The Neolithic in Iran8,000-5,000 BCE
- The Chalcolithic in Iran5,000-3,500 BCE
- The Early Bronze Age in Iran3,500-2,000 BCE
- The Middle Bronze Age and Old Elamite period in Iran2,000-1,500 BCE
- Elam1,500-539 BCE
- The Iron Age in northern and western Iran1,450-550 BCE
- Achaemenid Iran559-330 BCE
- Seleucid Iran323-247 BCE
- Parthian Iran247 BCE - 224 CE
- Sasanian Iran224-651 CE
- Early Islamic Iran651-1,040 CE
- Seljuq and Khwarazmshah Iran1,040-1,221 CE
- Mongol and Ilkhanid Iran1,221-1,353 CE
- Iran from the Muzaffarids to the Timurids and Turkmen1,340-1,508 CE
The frame
This page groups two periods of Elam for navigation: the Middle Elamite period, "ca. 1500-1000 B.C.", and the Neo-Elamite period, "ca. 1000-539 B.C.", as the Met's timeline gives them. The grouping is a display device of this site, not a new historical division. The geography is southwestern Iran: UNESCO places Chogha Zanbil in ancient Elam, today Khuzestan province in southwest Iran. Sources 1, 2, 4.
Two tracks at the same time
Elam is one of two parallel tracks on this site. The other, the Iron Age of northern and western Iran, runs at the same time: the Met dates Iron Age I about 1450-1250 BCE, Iron Age II about 1250-800 and Iron Age III about 800-550, beside the Elamite periods on the same pages. The two tracks are not one sequence: the Iron Age does not follow Elam, and a reader who moves from one track to the other changes region, not century. Sources 1, 2.
Boundaries and overlaps
Encyclopaedia Iranica starts the Middle Elamite period about 1600 BCE, a century before the Met, and agrees on an end about 1000. For the Neo-Elamite period it gives no overall range, only Neo-Elamite I about 1000-725/700 and Neo-Elamite II about 725/700-520 BCE, so the track ends about 539 for the Met and about 520 for Iranica. At the end, the Met's Achaemenid period begins about 559 BCE, before its Neo-Elamite period closes. Sources 3, 2.
On this site
The Middle Elamite period has two articles, on Chogha Zanbil and on Susa and Kabnak. The Neo-Elamite period has one, on Neo-Elamite Susa, and a documented gap: no second site with an excavation-dated Neo-Elamite layer was found in the sources checked.
Source
Sources and further reading
The research and references behind this page. Rights to external content remain with their owners.
- 1
Iran, 2000-1000 B.C.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art · 2000 · Checked
- 2
Iran, 1000 B.C.-1 A.D. (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, chronology)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Checked
- 3
ELAM ii. The archaeology of Elam
Elizabeth Carter · 1998 · Checked
- 4
Tchogha Zanbil - UNESCO World Heritage Centre
UNESCO World Heritage Centre · Checked