Proto-Elamite

The Proto-Elamite period is the time from ca. 3400 BC

to 2500 BC.[1] In archaeological terms this corresponds to
the late Banesh period, and it is recognized as the oldest
civilization in Iran.
The Proto-Elamite script is an Early Bronze Age writing system briey in use before the introduction of
Elamite cuneiform.

Overview

Tablet with numeric signs and script. From Teppe Sialk, Susa,
Uruk period (3200 BC to 2700 BC). Department of Oriental Antiquities, Louvre.

found in Susa are dated to this period. It is thought that

the Proto-Elamites were in fact Elamites (Elamite speakers), because of the many cultural similarities (for example, the building of ziggurats), and because no large-scale
migration to this area seems to have occurred between the
Proto-Elamite period and the later Elamites. But because
their script is yet to be deciphered, this theory remains
uncertain.
Some anthropologists, such as John Alden, maintain that
Proto-Elamite inuence grew rapidly at the end of the 4th
millennium BC and declined equally rapidly with the establishment of maritime trade in the Persian Gulf several
centuries later.

Clay tokens, from Susa, Uruk period, circa 3500 BC. Department
of Oriental Antiquities, Louvre.

Proto-Elamite pottery dating back to the last half of the

5th millennium BC has been found in Tepe Sialk, where
Proto-Elamite writing, the rst form of writing in Iran,
has been found on tablets of this date. The rst cylinder
seals come from the Proto-Elamite period, as well.[4]

During the period 80003700 BC, the Fertile Crescent

witnessed the spread of small settlements supported by
agricultural surplus. Geometric tokens emerged to be
used to manage stewardship of this surplus.[2] The earliest
tokens now known are those from two sites in the Zagros
region of Iran: Tepe Asiab and Ganj-i-Dareh Tepe.[3]

2 Proto-Elamite script

The Mesopotamian civilization emerged during the period 37002900 BC amid the development of technological innovations such as the plough, sailing boats and
copper metal working. Clay tablets with pictographic
characters appeared in this period to record commercial
transactions performed by the temples.[2]

It is uncertain whether the Proto-Elamite script was the

direct predecessor of Linear Elamite. Both scripts remain largely undeciphered, and it is mere speculation to
postulate a relationship between the two.

Besides Susa, one important Proto-Elamite site is Tepe A few Proto-Elamite signs seem either to be loans from
Sialk, where the only remaining Proto-Elamite ziggurat is the slightly older proto-cuneiform (Late Uruk) tablets of
still seen. Texts in the undeciphered Proto-Elamite script Mesopotamia, or perhaps more likely, to share a com1

REFERENCES

from Ghazir and Choga Mish are Uruk IV style or numerical tablets, whereas the Hissar object cannot be classied at present. The majority of the Tepe Sialk tablets
are also not proto-Elamite, strictly speaking, but belong
to the period of close contact between Mesopotamia and
Iran, presumably corresponding to Uruk V - IV.

2.2 Decipherment attempts

Although Proto-Elamite remains undeciphered, the content of many texts is known. This is possible because certain signs, and in particular a majority of the numerical
signs, are similar to the neighboring Mesopotamian writEconomic tablet with numeric signs. Proto-Elamite script in clay, ing system, proto-cuneiform. In addition, a number of the
Susa, Uruk period (3200 BC to 2700 BC). Department of Orienproto-Elamite signs are actual images of the objects they
tal Antiquities, Louvre.
represent. However, the majority of the proto-Elamite
signs are entirely abstract, and their meanings can only be
mon origin. Whereas proto-cuneiform is written in visual deciphered through careful graphotactical analysis.
hierarchies, Proto-Elamite is written in an in-line style: While the Elamite language has been suggested as a
numerical signs follow the objects they count; some non- likely candidate underlying the Proto-Elamite inscripnumerical signs are 'images of the objects they represent, tions, there is no positive evidence of this. The earliest
although the majority are entirely abstract.
Proto-Elamite inscriptions, being purely ideographical,
Proto-Elamite was used for a brief period around 3000 do not in fact contain any linguistic information, and folBC[5][6] (Jemdet Nasr period in Mesopotamia), whereas lowing Fribergs 1978/79 study of Ancient Near EastLinear Elamite is attested for a similarly brief period in ern metrology, decipherment attempts have moved away
from linguistic methods.
the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BC.
Proponents of an Elamo-Dravidian relationship have In 2012, Dr Jacob Dahl of the Faculty of Oriental Studies,
looked for similarities between the Proto-Elamite and the University of Oxford, announced a project to make highquality images of Proto-Elamite clay tablets and publish
Indus script.[7]
them online. His hope is that crowdsourcing by academics and amateurs working together would be able to
understand the script, despite the presence of mistakes
2.1 Inscription corpus
and the lack of phonetic clues.[8] Dahl assisted in making
[9]
The Proto-Elamite writing system was used over a very the images of nearly 1600 Proto-Elamite tablets online.
large geographical area, stretching from Susa in the west,
to Tepe Yahya in the east, and perhaps beyond. The
known corpus of inscriptions consists of some 1600 3 See also
tablets, the vast majority unearthed at Susa.
Proto-Elamite tablets have been found at the following
sites (in order of number of tablets recovered):
Susa (more than 1500 tablets)

History of Iran
Medes
Roman Ghirshman

Malyan (more than 30 tablets)

Tepe Yahya (27 tablets)
Tepe Sialk (22 tablets)
Jiroft (two tablets)
Ozbaki (one tablet)
Shahr-e Sukhteh (one tablet)
None of the inscribed objects from Ghazir, Chogha Mish
or Hissar can be veried as Proto-Elamite; the tablets

4 References
[1] Lamberg-Karlovsky, C. C. (1971-01-01). The ProtoElamite Settlement at Tepe Yay". Iran 9: 8796.
doi:10.2307/4300440.
[2] Salvador Carmona & Mahmoud Ezzamel:Accounting
And Forms Of Accountability In Ancient Civilizations:
Mesopotamia And Ancient Egypt, IE Business School, IE
Working Paper WP05-21, 2005), p.6
[3] Two precursors of writing: plain and complex tokens

[4] The Habib Anavian Collection: Iranian Art from the 5th
Millennium B.C. to the 7th Century A.D.. website of the
Anavian Gallery, New York. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
[5] Gnanadesikan, Amalia (2008). The Writing Revolution:
Cuneiform to the Internet. Blackwell. p. 25. ISBN 9781444304688.
[6] Hock, Hans Heinrich (2009). Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship: An Introduction to Historical and Comparative Linguistics (2nd ed.).
Mouton de Gruyter. p. 69. ISBN 978-3110214291.
[7] David McAlpin: Linguistic prehistory: the Dravidian situation, in Madhav M. Deshpande and Peter Edwin Hook:
Aryan and Non-Aryan in India, p.175-189
[8] Coughlan, Sean (2012-10-25). Breakthrough in worlds
oldest undeciphered writing. The Reectance Transformation Imaging System from Oxford University in use at
the Louvre Museum to obtain enhanced images of the writing (BBC News Online). Retrieved 2013-02-07.
[9] Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. University of California, Los Angeles. Retrieved 9 March 2015.

Literature
Jacob L. Dahl, Complex Graphemes in ProtoElamite, in Cuneiform Digital Library Journal
(CDLJ) 2005:3. Download a PDF copy
Peter Damerow, The Origins of Writing as a Problem of Historical Epistemology, in Cuneiform Digital Library Journal (CDLJ) 2006:1. Download a
PDF copy
Peter Damerow and Robert K. Englund, The ProtoElamite Texts from Tepe Yahya (= The American
School of Prehistoric Research Bulletin 39; Cambridge, MA, 1989).
Robert H. Dyson, Early Work on the Acropolis at
Susa. The Beginning of Prehistory in Iraq and Iran,
Expedition 10/4 (1968) 21-34.
Robert K. Englund, The State of Decipherment
of Proto-Elamite, in: Stephen Houston, ed. The
First Writing: Script Invention as History and Process (2004). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, pp. 100149. Download a PDF copy
Jran Friberg, The Third Millennium Roots of Babylonian Mathematics I-II (Gteborg, 1978/79).
A. Le Brun, Recherches stratigraphiques a
lacropole de Suse, 1969-1971, in Cahiers de la
Dlgation archaologique Franaise en Iran 1 (=
CahDAFI 1; Paris, 1971) 163 216.
Piero Meriggi, La scritura proto-elamica. Parte Ia:
La scritura e il contenuto dei testi (Rome, 1971).

Piero Meriggi, La scritura proto-elamica. Parte IIa:

Catalogo dei segni (Rome, 1974).
Piero Meriggi, La scritura proto-elamica. Parte IIIa:
Testi (Rome, 1974).
Daniel T. Potts, The Archaeology of Elam (Cambridge, UK, 1999).

6 External links
Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative Cuneiform
Digital Library Initiative
Proto-Elamite cdliwiki by the University of Oxford
hosted by the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative
Graphic, with article, of a Proto-Elamite tablet
Art of the Bronze Age: Southeastern Iran, Western Central Asia, and the Indus Valley, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
(fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Proto-Elamite culture

7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

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Proto-Elamite Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Elamite?oldid=691172190 Contributors: Glenn, Ruakh, Adamsan, Rindis,

Rich Farmbrough, Dbachmann, Bender235, Kwamikagami, Pearle, Ricky81682, MrLogic, Jguk, Zereshk, Woohookitty, Tabletop,
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Mogism, WilliamDigiCol, HistoryofIran, LouisAragon and Anonymous: 25

7.2

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7.3

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