Susa

Babylonian code of law or conduct

Susa ( ) was an ancient city in the lower Zagros Mountains about east of the Tigris, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers in Iran. It represents the current city of Shush, located on the site of ancient Susa. One of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East, Susa served as the capital of Elam and the winter capital of the Achaemenid Empire, and remained a strategic centre during the Parthian and Sasanian periods.

trade route throughout the middle east

city in Khuzestan Province, Iran

Inshushinak (also Šušinak, Šušun; Linear Elamite: 90px Insušinak, Cuneiform: dInšušinak) was the tutelary god of the city of Susa in Elam. His name has a Sumerian etymology, and can be translated as "lord of Susa". He was associated with kingship, and as a result appears in the names and epithets of multiple Elamite rulers. In Susa he was the main god of the local pantheon, though his status in other parts of Elam might have been different. He was also connected with justice and the underworld. His iconography is uncertain, though it is possible snakes were his symbolic animals. Two Mesopotami

mass wedding arranged by Alexander of Macedon

Old-Akkadian victory stele

mausoleum in Shush, Iranian national heritage site

palace in Shush, Iran

647 BCE military engagement between Assyria and Elam

oldest surviving literary text in the world

Narundi ( dna-ru-ti) or Narunde was an Elamite goddess worshiped in Susa. She is attested there roughly between 2250 BCE and 1800 BCE. Multiple inscriptions mention her, and it assumed she was a popular deity at the time. In later periods, she occurs exclusively in Mesopotamia, where she played a role in apotropaic rituals in association with the Sebitti. Many attestations are available from late Assyrian sources, but it is not certain if they should be regarded as an indication of continuous worship.

statue

prehistoric pottery artifact from Susa

Achaemenide burial