2/8 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



industrious, and skilful husbandmen, with a surprising knowledge 

 of irrigating processes. Even the term " Elam " is said to have 

 the same meaning as " Akkad" (i.e. Highland) in contradistinction 

 to "Sumer " (Lowland) 1 . Yet the type would appear to be on the 

 whole rather Semitic, judging at least from the large arched nose 

 and thick beard of the Susian god, Ramman, 

 brought by Ashurbanipal out of Elam, and figured 

 in Layard's Monuments of Nineveh, ist series, Plate 

 65. This, however, may be explained by the fact that the Elamites 

 were subdued at an early date by intruding Semites, although they 

 afterwards shook off the yoke and became strong enough to 

 conquer Mesopotamia and extend their expeditions to Syria and 

 the Jordan more than 2000 years before the new era. Of Elam, 

 properly Anshad, the capital was the renowned city of Susa 

 (Shushan), whence Susiana, the modern Khuzistan. 



Even after the capture of Susa by Ashurbanipal, Elam again 

 rose to great power under Cyrus the Great, who, however, was no 

 Persian adventurer, as stated by Herodotus, but the legitimate 

 Elamite ruler^ as inscribed on his cylinder and tablet now in the 

 British Museum : " Cyrus, the great king, the king of Babylon, 

 the king of Sumir and Akkad, the king of the four zones, the son 

 of Kambyses, the great king, the king of Elam, the grandson of 

 Cyrus the great king," who by the favour of Merodach has 

 overcome the black-headed people (i.e. the Akkads) and at last 

 entered Babylon in peace. On an earlier cylinder Nabonidus, 

 last king of Babylon, tells us how this same Cyrus subdued the 

 Medes here called Mandas, " Barbarians " and captured their 

 king Astyages and his capital Ekbatana. But although Cyrus, 

 hitherto supposed to be a Persian and a Zoroastrian monotheist, 

 here appears as an Elamite and a polytheist, "it is pretty certain 

 that although descended from Elamite kings, these were [at that 



1 It should be noted that neither Akkad nor Sumer occurs in the oldest 

 texts, where Akkad is called Kish from the name of its capital, and Sumer 

 Kiengi (Kengi), said to mean the "land of reeds and canals." Kish has 

 been identified with the Kush of Gen. x., one of the best abused words in 

 Palethnology. For this identification, however, there is some ground, seeing 

 that Kush is mentioned in the closest connection with " Babel, and Erech, and 

 Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar " (Mesopotamia) v. 10. 



