Manneans

For further reading…

If you are interested to know a little more about the people I talked about in episode 6, please follow these links:

The Lullubi: an article from Encylopaedia Iranica. Some images of the relief of Anubanini at Sar-e Pol-e Zahab. If you have a sense of humour, then read my attempt at being funny with the Lullubi, which I published a few years ago online!

Kassites: Again, the entry from EIr. A map of Kassite Babylonia. Here is a bit on Kassites which talks about their origin. Interesting proposal, and a huge bibliography, on Kassite Nippur.

The Gutians: the entry on Gutians from the EIr. Gutian Sumer, in digested form! You’ll see what I mean about people deciding how folk looked 4,000 years ago when you read this, arguing for a ‘Black’ origin of the Sumerians, or this one which has decided that they were Caucasian. This ‘Kurdish argument‘ is not actually half-bad in camparison…

The Manneans: the entry on Mannea from the EIr. Very good review of the Mannean pieces at the Met Museum (it’s a PDF).

Happy reading!

Episode 6: Peoples and Languages of Iran in the Early Iron Age

Well, here is Episode 6 for you, and the feed too…

I am stopping our chronological progression to talk a bit about the people we have been concerned with. I am going through a list of the civilisations, cultures, and languages of western Iran. We know of most of these through Assyrian and Sumerian, and occasionally Babylonian sources. I will talk a bit more about the Elamite culture, the Kassites and the Gutians, the Lullubi, and finally the Manneans. This will set up the scene for the whole “Indo-Iranian” migration story which seems to be overshadowing so much of early Iranian history.

I talk about the Loristan Bronzes in this episode. Here is an example of a couple of anthropomorphic horses from the BM. They are very common, so much so that you can even buy some of them on the Ebay! (I STRONGLY discourage you from doing this. Do NOT encourage looters and dealers!).

Naram-Sin and the Lullubi

Stele of Naram-Sin showing his victory over the Lullubi