rews made out Elam to be one of the sons of Shem (_Gen._
x. 22).

** Anzan, Anshan, and, by assimilation of the nasal with the
sibilant, Ashshan. This name has already been mentioned in
the inscriptions of the kings and vicegerents of Lagash and
in the _Book of Prophecies_ of the ancient Chaldaean
astronomers; it also occurs in the royal preamble of Cyrus
and his ancestors, who like him were styled "kings of
Anshan." It had been applied to the whole country of Elam,
and afterwards to Persia. Some are of opinion that it was
the name of a part of Elam, viz. that inhabited by the
Turanian Medes who spoke the second language of the
Achaemenian inscriptions, the eastern half, bounded by the
Tigris and the Persian Gulf, consisting of a flat and swampy
land. These differences of opinion gave rise to a heated
controversy; it is now, however, pretty generally admitted
that Anzan-Anshan was really the plain of Elam, from the
mountains to the sea, and one set of authorities affirms
that the word Anzan may have meant "plain" in the language
of the country, while others hesitate as yet to pronounce
definitely on this point.

*** The meaning of "Nunima," "Ilamma," "Ilamtu," in the
group of words used to indicate Elam, had been recognised
even by the earliest Assyriologists; the name originally
referred to the hilly country on the north and east of Susa.
To the Hebrews, Elam was one of the sons of Shem (Gen. x.
22). The Greek form of the name is Elymais, and some of the
classical geographers were well enough acquainted with the
meaning of the word to be able to distinguish the region to
which it referred from Susiana proper.

[Illustration: 048.jpg THE TUMULUS OF SUSA, AS IT APPEARED TOWARDS THE
MIDDLE OF THE XIXth CENTURY]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after a plate in Chesney.

Its fortress and palace were raised upon the slopes of a mound which
overlooked the surrounding country:* at its base, to the eastward,
stretched the town, with its houses of sun-dried bricks.**

* Susa, in the language of the country, was called Shushun;
this name was transliterated into Chaldaeo-Assyrian, by
Shushan, Shushi.

** Strabo tells us, on the authority of Polycletus, that the
town had no walls in the time of Alexander, and extended
over a space two hundred stadia i