SUSA sōō’ sə. Gr. Σοῦσα, variant Σουσίς. The ancient capital of the Elamite empire situated on the plain of Iranian Khuzestan. The site has been excavated by the French since the late 19th cent. The earliest settlements date from the Neolithic era and show a separate development which is called “Susiana” by archeologists. Documents in an unknown hieroglyphic script inscribed on clay tablets and called “Proto-Elamite” and marking an early stage in the production of writing (q.v.) have been discovered in the remains of Susa. When the town emerges into the light of history it is the center of the Elamite civilization. In the Sumer. king list which yields glimpses of dynasties from the third millennium b.c., the name of Elam and its center of culture, Susa, is included. It appears that from this remote antiquity, Susa was a cult center and perhaps the city of the archaic religious-state centering around the high Elamite deity, In-Shushinak. During the third dynasty of Ur, a period of Sumer. renaissance, the King Shulgi (c. 2095-2048 b.c.) conquered Susa and set a Sumer. governor (ensi) over the people. Under Sumer. and later Sem. domination, Susa was built and expanded in the manner of Mesopotamian cult centers with an astrological temple or stage-tower called a ziggurat. Traders, priests and other peaceful travelers often passed between Sumer and Elamite Susa. However, as Sumer again began to decline the Elamites took advantage of the situation and invaded and destroyed Ur in 2006 b.c. The Elamite success was short-lived, for Gungunum of Larsa overthrew Susa in 1924 b.c. For approximately four centuries thereafter Susa is little noted in the cuneiform records, but appears again to ally with Assyria and threaten Babylon in the S. The Elamite king, Shutruk-Nahhunte wiped out the Kassite dynasty of Babylon in 1174 b.c. He carried back to Susa many famous art treasures from his Mesopotamian campaigns such as the Code of Hammurabi, the Stele of Naram-Sin and many inscribed texts. Shortly, however, the kings of Susa lost control of the W bank of the Tigris River, and slowly the once formidable empire ruled from Susa vanished. The resurgence of Babylon in the Neo-Babylonian period led to the utter destruction of Susa by Ashurbanipal in 639 b.c. at the culmination of long drawn hostilities. With the demise of Elamite sovereignty the way was open for the newly settled Indo-Europeans in Iran to assert themselves. With the rise of first Medes and then Persians, Susa became the regional capital of the Aryans. Its location as the eastern terminus of the royal Achaemenid road from “Sardis to Susa” made it a center of trade and commerce. Under the Achaemenids Susa was further embellished and extended after Darius chose it as his royal residence in 521 b.c. A building inscr. of Darius has been excavated at Susa which states, “This palace that I built at Susa, its decorations were transported from distant places. The earth was excavated down until I reached the (bed)rock in the earth. When the excavation had been completed the depth of forty measures, rubble was packed down, in another place twenty measures in depth. On this fill the palace was erected” (R. Kent, Old Persian Grammar, Texts, Lexicon [1950], 144). The text goes on to list the commodities and the foreign areas from which they were brought; cedar wood from Lebanon, hard wood from Gandara, gold from Sardis, lapis lazuli and carnelian from Sogdiana, turquoise from Chorsmia, silver and ebony from Egypt, sculpture from the Ionian Greeks, ivory from Ethiopia and Sind. The king then adds, “Says Darius the king, At Susa a most magnificent construct was ordered, a most magnificent construct was completed, may Ahuramazda protect me and my father Hystaspes and my country.” Susa is mentioned frequently in the Book of Esther as the scene of the affairs of the court of Darius’ son and successor, Xerxes (q.v.). The opulence and magnificence of the palace is apparent in Esther and other ancient accounts. It became one of Alexander’s most prized fortunes of war and the site of a mass marriage of Gr. officers with the Pers. royal women in 324 b.c. Its importance then declined and it was repeatedly overthrown and sacked during the Medieval period. It has been excavated from the middle of the 19th cent. most meticulously by the French expeditions.

Bibliography See under Persia, M. Dieulafoy, L’acropole de Suse, 4 vols. (1890-1892); R. de Mecquenem, Archéologie susienne (1943); R. Ghirshman, Cinq campagnes de fouilles à Suse 1946-1951 (1952).