Proto-Elamite
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[[Image:Elam cool.jpg|thumb|right|Silver cup from Marvdasht, [[Fars]], with Linear-Elamite inscription on it. 3rd Millennium BC. [[National Museum of Iran]].]]
[[Image:Sialk1.jpg|thumb|right|[[Sialk|''Teppe Sialk'']] is one of the remaining proto-elamite ruins in Iran. The ruins date back to the 6th millennium BC at the earliest.]]
{{History of Iran}}
The '''Proto-Elamite''' period is the time of ca. [[3200 BC]] to [[2700 BC]] when [[Susa]], the later capital of the [[Elamites]] began to receive influence from the cultures of the [[Iranian plateau]]. In archaeological terms this corresponds to the late [[Banesh]] period. This civilization is recognized as the oldest in Iran and was largely contemporary with its neighbour, [[Sumer]]ian civilization, the oldest in the world, which began around 5200 BC.
The '''Proto-Elamite script''' is an [[Early Bronze Age]] writing system briefly in use for the ancient [[Elamite language]] before the introduction of [[Elamite Cuneiform]].
== Overview ==
Besides Susa, one important Proto-Elamite site is [[Teppe Sialk]], where the only remaining Proto-Elamite [[ziggurat]] is still seen. Texts in the undeciphered Proto-Elamite script found in [[Susa]] are dated to this period. It is thought that the Proto-Elamites were in fact Elamites ([[Elamite language|Elamite]] speakers), because of the many cultural similarities (for example, the building of ziggurats), and because no large-scale migration to this area seems to have occurred between the Proto-Elamite period and the later Elamites. But because their script is yet to be deciphered, this theory remains uncertain.
Some anthropologists, such as John Alden, maintain that Proto-Elamite influence grew rapidly at the end of the 4th millennium BC and declined equally rapidly with the establishment of maritime trade in the [[Persian Gulf]] several centuries later.
Proto-Elamite pottery dating back to the last half of the 5th millennium BC has been found in [[Sialk]], where Proto-Elamite writing, the first form of writing in [[Iran]], has been found on tablets of this date. The first [[cylinder seal]]s come from the Proto-Elamite period, as well. [http://www.anaviangallery.com/ancient_iranian_preface.html]
== Proto-Elamite script ==
Proto-Elamite script, the first indigenous writing system from Iran, was long thought of as a precursor to a hypothetical indigenous Elamite writing system. Proto-Elamite, as well as [[Linear Elamite]], remains largely undeciphered. At present, it is mere speculation to postulate a relationship between the two writing systems.
A few Proto-Elamite signs seem either to be loans from the slightly older proto-cuneiform (Late [[Uruk period|Uruk]]) tablets of Mesopotamia, or perhaps more likely, to share a common origin. Whereas proto-cuneiform is written in visual hierarchies, proto-Elamite is written in an in-line style: numerical signs follow the objects they count; some non-numerical signs are images of the objects they represent, although the majority are entirely abstract.
Proto-Elamite was used for a brief period around 3000 BC (presumably contemporary with Uruk III or [[Jemdet Nasr]] in Mesopotamia), whereas Linear Elamite is attested for a similarly brief period sometime during the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BC.
The Proto-Elamite script has been described as very similar to the [[Indus script]], a still yet undeciphered script of ancient [[Pakistan]] on the eastern border of the Iraninan plateau.<ref>David McAlpin: "Linguistic prehistory: the Dravidian situation", in Madhav M. Deshpande and Peter Edwin Hook: ''Aryan and Non-Aryan in India'', p.175-189</ref>
===Inscription corpus===
Proto-Elamite writing system was used over a very large geographical area, stretching from [[Susa]] in the west, to [[Tepe Yahya]] in the east, and perhaps beyond. The known corpus of inscriptions consists of some 1600 tablets, the vast majority unearthed at [[Susa]].
Proto-Elamite tablets have been found at the following sites (in order of number of tablets recovered):
*Susa (more than 1500 tablets)
*[[Anshan (Persia)|Malyan]] (more than 30 tablets)
*Tepe Yahya (27 tablets)
*[[Sialk]] (22 tablets)
*Ozbaki (one tablet)
*Shahr-i-Shokhta (one tablet)
*[[Jiroft civilization|Jiroft]] (two tablets)
None of the inscribed objects from Ghazir, Chogha Mish or Hissar can be verified as Proto-Elamite; the tablets from Ghazir and Choga Mish are Uruk IV style or numerical tablets, whereas the Hissar object cannot be classified at present. The majority of the [[Sialk]] tablets are also not proto-Elamite, strictly speaking, but belong to the period of close contact between Mesopotamia and Iran, presumably corresponding to Uruk V - IV.
=== Decipherment attempts ===
Although Proto-Elamite remains undeciphered, the content of many texts is known. This is possible because certain signs, and in particular a majority of the numerical signs, are direct loans from the neighboring Mesopotamian writing system, proto-cuneiform. In addition, a number of the proto-Elamite signs are actual images of the objects they represent. However, the majority of the proto-Elamite signs are entirely abstract, and their meanings can only be deciphered through careful [[graphotactical]] analysis.
While the [[Elamite language]] has been suggested as a likely candidate underlying the Proto-Elamite inscriptions, there is no positive evidence of this. The earliest Proto-Elamite inscriptions, being purely [[ideograph]]ical, do not in fact contain any linguistic information, and following Friberg's 1978/79 study of Ancient Near Eastern [[metrology]], decipherment attempts have moved away from linguistic methods.
== See also ==
{{ANE portal}}
* [[Roman Ghirshman]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
== Literature ==
* Jacob L. Dahl, "Complex Graphemes in Proto-Elamite," in ''Cuneiform Digital Library Journal'' (''CDLJ'') [http://www.cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlj/2005/cdlj2005_003.html 2005:3]. Download a [http://www.cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlj/2005/cdlj2005_003.pdf PDF copy]
* Peter Damerow, “The Origins of Writing as a Problem of Historical Epistemology,” in ''Cuneiform Digital Library Journal'' (''CDLJ'') [http://www.cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlj/2006/cdlj2006_001.html 2006:1]. Download a [http://www.cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlj/2006/cdlj2006_001.pdf PDF copy]
* Peter Damerow and Robert K. Englund, ''The Proto-Elamite Texts from Tepe Yahya'' (= The American School of Prehistoric Research Bulletin 39; Cambridge, MA, 1989).
* Robert H. Dyson, “Early Work on the Acropolis at Susa. The Beginning of Prehistory in Iraq and Iran,” ''Expedition'' 10/4 (1968) 21-34.
* Robert K. Englund, “The State of Decipherment of Proto-Elamite,” in: Stephen Houston, ed. ''The First Writing: Script Invention as
History and Process'' (2004). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 100-149. Download a [http://cdli.ucla.edu/staff/englund/englund2004c.pdf PDF copy]
* Jöran Friberg, ''The Third Millennium Roots of Babylonian Mathematics I-II'' (Göteborg, 1978/79).
* A. Le Brun, “Recherches stratigraphiques a l’acropole de Suse, 1969-1971,” in '' Cahiers de la Délégation archaéologique Française en Iran 1 '' (= CahDAFI 1; Paris, 1971) 163 – 216.
* Piero Meriggi, ''La scritura proto-elamica. Parte Ia: La scritura e il contenuto dei testi'' (Rome, 1971).
* Piero Meriggi, ''La scritura proto-elamica. Parte IIa: Catalogo dei segni'' (Rome, 1974).
* Piero Meriggi, ''La scritura proto-elamica. Parte IIIa: Testi'' (Rome, 1974).
* Daniel T. Potts, ''The Archaeology of Elam'' (Cambridge, UK, 1999).
==External links==
* [http://www.cdli.ucla.edu:16080/wiki/index.php/Proto-Elamite Proto-Elamite] ([http://www.cdli.ucla.edu CDLI project], by J. L. Dahl)
[[Category:Bronze Age writing systems]]
[[Category:Elamite language]]
[[Category:Undeciphered writing systems]]
[[fr:Civilisation proto-élamite]]
[[ja:原エラム]]
[[sh:Proto-elamski period]]