Royal City of Susa: Ancient Near Eastern Treasures in the Louvre

Harper, Prudence O., Joan Aruz, and Françoise Tallon, eds. (1992)

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The ancient city of Susa (biblical Shushan) lay at the edge of the Iranian plateau, not far from the great cities of Mesopotamia. A strategically located and vital center, Susa absorbed diverse influences and underwent great political fluctuations during the several thousand years of its history. When French archaeologists began to excavate its site in the nineteenth century, the astonishing abundance of finds greatly expanded our understanding of the ancient Near East. The artifacts were taken to Paris through diplomatic agreement and became a centerpiece of the Louvre's great collection of Near Eastern antiquities. These works are rarely loaned, but a remarkable selection that includes many undisputed masterpieces, brought to The Metropolitan Museum of Art for exhibition, is presented in this comprehensive publication.

Susa was settled about 4000 B.C. and has yielded striking pottery finds from that prehistoric period. A rich production followed of objects for daily use, ritual, and luxury living, finely carved in various materials or fashioned of clay. Monumental sculpture was made in stone or bronze, and dramatic friezes were composed of brilliantly glazed bricks. Among the discoveries are tiny, intricately carved cylinder seals and splendid jewelry. Clay balls marked with symbols offer fascinating testimony to the very beginnings of writing; clay tablets from later periods bearing inscriptions in cuneiform record political history, literature, business transactions, and mathematical calculations.

A very important group of finds from Susa is made up of objects brought back as booty from conquests in Mesopotamia. These works, many of them the royal monuments of Akkadian and Babylonian monarchs—for instance, the great stele of Naram-Sin—are among the best known of all objects from the ancient Near East. Altogether, the exhibition presents more than two hundred objects found at Susa, produced over a period of about 3500 years. They come from all periods of the site's settlement, from it earliest history to its adornment as a major city of the opulent Achaemenid Persian empire.

Eighteen French and American scholars have contributed essays to this volume on subjects that include the history of art in ancient Iran from prehistoric settlement through the Achaemenid period; the history of the excavations at Susa; the development of writing; seals and sealings; royal and religious structures at Susa; objects brought from Mesopotamia; brick decoration; popular art; and cuneiform texts. Recent results of ongoing research into the archaeology of Susa are discussed. Analyses of specific techniques are included as well as reports on the conservation of objects. Each work in the exhibition is illustrated and fully described, with references to relevant publications.

Table of contents

Foreword
Philippe de Montebello

Prefaces and Acknowledgments
Prudence O. Harper and Annie Caubet

Maps

Chronology

Susa in the Ancient Near East

An Introduction to the History of Art in Iran; The French Scientific Delegation in Persia; A History of the Excavation at Susa:Personalities and Archeological Methodologies
Pierre Amiet, Nicole Chevalier, and Elizabeth Carter

Prehistoric Susa

The Cemetery of Susa: An Interpretation; Susa I Pottery; Objects of Bitumen Compound and Terracotta; Late Susa I Glyptic: Ritual Imagery, Practical Use
Elizabeth Carter, Frank Hole, Zainab Bahrani, Agnès Spycket, and Joan Aruz

Protoliterate Susa

The Late Uruk Period; Notes on the Early History of Writing in Iran; The Two Archaic Deposits; Contemporary Sculpture; The Proto-Elamite Period; Proto-Elamite Seals and Sealings
Elizabeth Carter, Holly Pittman, Agnès Benoit, Zainab Bahrani, and Matthew W. Stolper

The Old Elamite Period

Early-Third-Millennium Sculpture; The Monuments of Puzur-Inshushinak; Objects of the Late Third and Early Second Millennium; Vessels of Bitumen Compound; Seals of the Old Elamite Period
Elizabeth Carter, Zainab Bahrani, B&eecute;atrice Andr&eecute;-Salvini, Annie Caubet, Françoise Tallon, Joan Aruz, and Odile Deschesne

The Middle Elamite Period

Royal and Religious Structures and Their Decoration; Stone Sculpture; Metal, Clay, and Ivory Sculpture; The "Trouvaille de la statuette d'or" from the Inshushinak Temple Precinct; Small Finds: Sculptures and Seals
Elizabeth Carter, Suzanne Heim, Agnès Benoit, Joan Aruz, Françoise Tallon, Agnès Spycket, Annie Caubet, Loïc Hurtel, Prudence O. Harper, and Zainab Bahrani

The Mesopotamian Presence

Mesopotamian Monuments Found at Susa
Prudence O. Harper and Pierre Amiet

Popular Art at Susa

Terracotta Figurines
Agnès Spycket

The Neo-Elamite Period

Sculpture; Glazed Objects and the Elamite Industry; Seals
Elizabeth Carter, Oscar White Muscarella, Matthew W. Stolper, Suzanne Heim, and Joan Aruz

Susa in the Achaemenid Period

Achaemenid Art and Architecture at Susa; Sculpture; Achaemenid Brick Decoration; The Achaemenid Tomb on the Acropole
Oscar White Muscarella, Annie Caubet, and Françoise Tallon

The Written Record

Cuniform Texts from Susa; Historical, Economic, and Legal Texts; Literary, Ritual, and Mathematical Texts
Matthew W. Stolper and B&eecute;atrice Andr&eecute;-Salvani

Technical Appendix

Shell, Ivory, and Bone Artifacts; Conservation Report
Annie Caubet, Brigitte Bourgeois, and Jean-François de Lapérouse

Contributors to the Catalogue
Concordance
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations Credits

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