Prudence Oliver Harper

This is the catalog of an exhibition at the MET, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in 1992 and 1993. The focus is on the excavations in Susa, the southwest of what is today Iran. Susa was the main site of the Elamite empire, a culture rather than a real empire or state, which developed in symbiosis with the Mesopotamian culture (modern Iraq), in the 3rd, 2nd and 1st millennium BC. Susa itself rose to prominence as the most important city of the Persian empire, 550-330 bce. So there is something to find there. This book focuses mainly on the excavation history in the 20th century, especially the work of French archaeologists. In that sense, this catalog is – as it should be – valuable as a presentation and interpretation of the many finds, often very detailed. The accompanying texts are rather general, and without the caution that is appropriated given the general lack of sources for this early period. I even found some theses rather speculative, especially if you compare them with D.T. POTTS The Archaeology of Elam: Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State, which I read before.… (más)