Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Peoples of the empire: The Elamites

So far, this blog has focused on the history, society, clothing and arms of the Persians.  However, it was rare for any Achaemenid army to lack a significant number of troops from other nations.  This week, I'll begin a series of brief overviews on other national contingents found in the imperial armies during the Graeco-Persian wars.

We'll start with the Elamites.  I'd like to point out that because of certain difficulties with the uniquely Elamite costume, I don't recommend attempting it at this time.

History
Elam (Hebrew, derived from Elamite Haltamti) emerged as a civilization around 6,000 years ago and developed unique writing systems around 3000 BC, though only those documents written in cuneiform (2200 onward) have yet been decipered.  They thus predate the arrival of Indo-Europeans like the Iranians by many centuries.  Their language was either an isolate or possibly a sort of aunt to the Dravidian family, now represented mainly in South India and Sri Lanka.  They were polytheists, though I assume that over time, as Iranic culture became dominant in the area, their descendants took up early forms of Zoroastrianism and related faiths.

The country lay in the southwestern Iranian Plateau and its foothills.  Its most important cities were Susa (modern Shush) in Khuzestan Province and Anshan in Fars, the latter close to where Pasargadae and Persepolis were later built, and their kings frequently styled themselves "King of Anshan and Susa."  The name of Khuzestan derives from Susa via Old Persian "Huza" due to the Iranic tendency to transform initial S into H (cf. Sanskrit Sapta Sindhu, "[land of] seven rivers" = Avestan Hapta Hendu*); it later hardened into KH.

Elam was a powerful state that competed with Babylonia and Assyria for much of the 2nd and early 1st millennium BC.  However, a few centuries in, war had weakened and disunited the kingdoms.  At this time some Persians appear to have peacefully immigrated and settled alongside the Elamites, while others remained as nomadic tribes.  As Cyrus the Great in his famous Babylonian cylinder described himself as King of Anshan, it appears the Persians had at some point seized power in the ancient capital.  If Achaemenes existed, he may have been the first Persian king of Anshan.

The early Achaemenids would use Elamite as one of the languages in their inscriptions and administrative tablets.  In these records appear people identified as Elamites but bearing Iranian names.  It is likely that as time went on, the Elamites were absorbed by the Persians.

Dress
The robe
At Naqš-i Rustam, the tomb of Darius the Great, a table of nations is carved representing the Great King under Ahura Mazda supported by the many peoples of the empire, each identified by nationality.  The first three are a Persian, a Mede and an Elamite.  The Elamite wears a long, pleated robe identical to that of the Persian, while the Mede and all other Iranic peoples other than the Persian wear some sort of cavalry costume (tunic or jacket and trousers).  However, in most art not produced for the Great King, the Persians are seen wearing the cavalry costume, which Herodotus attributes to the Medes.  The simplest explanation is that rather than being specifically Median, the cavalry costume is actually the common dress of all Iranic peoples including the Persians, who adopted the robe when they came into contact with the Elamites.  Because it's seen in art produced for the royal court and the king's use, it's believed the Persians wore it as formalwear and so is also called the court robe or court dress.

The associated strapped/buttoned shoes are probably Elamite as well.  The best image I have found of these shoes is the fifth photo on this page.  I don't know how they were constructed.

The robe falls to just above the ankles and rises slightly where it is pleated in one or two long gathers down the front.  The gathering is held in place by a narrow, square-knotted sash probably made of fabric.  A good three-dimensional representation can be seen on the Egyptian statue of Darius the Great.  The upper appears to have been covered by a sort of poncho.  A frontwise view of this poncho (if such it is) may be seen in the fourth photo here.

Cavalry costume
In any case, Elamites on campaign in the Graeco-Persian wars probably wore Medo-Persian dress (tunic and trousers).  I have never seen any images of the Elamite robe in Greek art.  According to Herodotus, "The Cissians [people of Susa] in the army were equipped like the Persians, but they wore turbans instead of caps" (7.62, tr. A.D. Godley).  The translation "turban" may be misleading; it probably refers to the twisted headbands seen on many soldiers who wear the robe in imperial art, whereas "cap" is probably the earflapped tiara.

Arms and fighting methods
Elam was not a heavily equestrian culture, so they probably fought in a manner similar to Persian infantry.  The tradition of large pavises and archery is also seen in Mesopotamian warfare.

The bow
Their bows were the D-shaped ones with recurved tips also associated with Elamite dress in Achaemenid art, which are again similar to Mesopotamian models.  It was popular for the tips to be highly recurved and carved into birds' heads, but unfortunately no one I know of sells anything like this off the shelf.  The best option is probably an Assyrian bow.  Grozer Archery sometimes has some available, and you can find more with a simple Internet search, although be sure to ask around for recommendations (arms sites such as RAT and myArmoury are a good place to start).

The strung bow was carried around the left shoulder rather than in a case.  Arrows were kept in a large quiver behind the right shoulder.

Some soldiers in robes can be seen wearing gorytoi, which presumably contained the Scythian or B-shaped bows.

The dagger
The Elamites, and Persians dressing like them, also wore a dagger with a very wide, offset throat, tucked into their sashes diagonally across the belly.  The aforementioned Egyptian statue also provides a good closeup of this weapon.  I know of no archaeological findings, nor what they looked like when drawn from their scabbards, but based on the shape of the hilt, I surmise that they had tapered blades and were similar to earlier West Asian bronze swords with flanged slab tangs.  The large iron sword from Persepolis may be a related type.

* The same shift occurs in Greek, as in hepta ("seven," modern efta) versus Latin septem.

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