Gone with the wind

Photo essay: Ancient ruins and museum in Shoosh

by Reza Keyhani
14-Nov-2007
 

The very first civilization which has ever lived in Iran was The Shoosh Civilization. 8000 years ago, there was a civilization which lived in today's Khoozestan, their name was "Shoosh Civilization," or in English "Susa Civilization." So far this has been reported as the oldest civilization which have ever existed on Earth. By civilization, we mean civilized city government or city state or Empire or Kingdom or any type of local civilized system. The ancient city of Susa is mentioned in Old Testament as the place where prophet Daniel lived. The city name is derived from Shashana, a member of water lily family of flowers, believed to grow in lakes and swamps outside this biblical city in ancient times. Susa was the capital of a ancient kingdom know is Elam. A kingdom built and ruled by Dravidian people who ruled it from second millennium BCE until late mid-first millennium BCE. Elamite kingdom was destroyed by attacks from Babylonians >>>Full text from Iran Zamin

>>> Reza Keyhani's Picassaa album 

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It is NOT gone with the

by KC (not verified) on Sun Nov 18, 2007 05:02 PM PST

It is NOT gone with the wind! It is standing right there behind you in those photos.

Great pictures.


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Sepas!

by Kamangir on Sat Nov 17, 2007 04:43 AM PST

Thanks very much for this interesting historical article and the very beautiful pictures.

Sepas


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Amazing

by Areyo Barzan (not verified) on Thu Nov 15, 2007 04:57 AM PST

It makes one proud to be an Iranian

Thank you for sharing it with us  

 


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Zendeh Bad Iran :)

by Agha Mostafa (not verified) on Wed Nov 14, 2007 04:50 PM PST

Dar Rage' Hameye' Ma Iraniha Khoone' Korosh va Dariush Kabir Jarian Darad. Maha Aval Az Hame' "IRANI" Hastim. Irani "Vatan Parast" Az Harchiz Mohemtar Ast. Hala Mikhad In Korsoh Bashad, Ya Dariush Bashad, Ya Mosadegh, Ya Reza Shah Kabir. Assallam Vassallam.


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no offense, but there is no

by megabiz_irani (not verified) on Wed Nov 14, 2007 04:17 PM PST

no offense, but there is no susa civilization. susa was a city. it is elamite civilization...study more before you write!


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Elam

by FD (not verified) on Wed Nov 14, 2007 03:45 PM PST

Elam is a very interesting name, specially in places like China where some people still use it. This usage is due to the fact that Iranian/Assyrian Christian missionaries went to China first, that is before the Western missionaries and introduced the country they came from as Elam, which is also in the Bible.
FD


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No. 8

by Kouroush Sassanian (not verified) on Wed Nov 14, 2007 02:56 PM PST

So beautiful with flowing hair...shashedam be arabahaee kir khor and muslims world wide....hayff..hayff...


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Rosie T.

Shush of the Elamites/Shiism

by Rosie T. on Wed Nov 14, 2007 01:21 PM PST

Yes, it's Susa in English and Shush in Persian and we Ashkenaz Jews in New York when I was growing up in the sixties celebrated it during Purim as "Shushan", where Queen Esther exposed Haman's plot on the Jews, so I think it is Shushan in Hebrew.  Kiarostami Junior has a magnificent short film called "Shush-raa Didam" (I Saw Susa) va man ham tuye in film Shush-raa didam, and I would recommend it to absolutely anyone.  Your photos are beautiful but Kiarostami's use of the black and white captures the ancientness and the timelessness in a way that chills the bone yet warms the soul.
There is something crucial about Shush that Iranians I believe need to ponder seriously. The Elamite civilization was neither related to the Indo-Europian (Iranian), the Semitic (Arabic) or the Sumerian. It was its very own and it did predate "Persia" (or Iranzamin) by millennia. However, not DESPITE this but because of it, the Achaemenids claimed Shush as their jewel in the crown. And there Cyrus built a palace and there Xerxes wed Esther, and for two centuries, during the flowering of the Achaemenids, Elamite was one of the official languages of the Empire (along with Aramaic and others).

This should give Aryaan/Persianist purists some pause, since Cyrus is clearly one of their heroes. One dearly wonders what he himself would have had to say about "pure" Aryaanism."  Not much, I suspect.

 So moving forward to the Takhte-Jamshid vs. Lizard Eaters battleground: It took neary one thousand years from the Arab  "invasion" to Shah Ismail in 1501 for Iran to become Shia, and his Shiism was not an OVERLAY of Arabic elements on some pure Persian entity, but a synchretism of Persian, Arabic, Turkic elements and others, ;which forged the identity of a modern Iranian state after the ravages of the Mongols and Tatars. Iranian Shiism is not a foreign but THE quintessentially IRANIAN phenomenon of early modern history. At least that is how I understand things, but of course I am "khareji...."

Zendeh baad, Shush of the Elamites and the Achaemenids. Zendeh baad Iraan in the living splendour of all her colors and complexities.

Robin Jayne Goldsmith 

 

 


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