Page:History of Early Iran.pdf/37

Rh in Elam; there his name had doubtless a wholly different pronunciation, perhaps Nahhunte. Two deities were all-important in the royal and official literature: Huban and Inshushinak. The name of the former was often written by means of the Akkadian ideogram which proclaimed him "the Great One." Inshushinak was, quite literally, "the Lord of Susa." Nevertheless, although the rulers might proclaim the supremacy of these gods, many passages referring to Kiririsha, a form of the mother-goddess, and hundreds of clay statuettes of this deity found in the course of the Susa excavations, bespeak her whom the common people of Elam really and sincerely worshiped.

Thus briefly we may conclude our survey of the land and its prehistory, language, and people. Restrictions of time and space will prevent the presentation in the following pages of many subjects which are largely cultural in aspect. Much that follows will be concerned with names, dates, and synchronisms with Babylonian events, for this study is primarily a political history. Even thus limited, a history is not without value, for to comprehend fully the contributions of early man in Iran and in Elam we must first understand his relationship to his immediate neighbors. For that purpose a political history is essential.