Trade for the Gods…How to retrace the gifts for the gods in Neo-Elamite cultic practice?
(2023) Journées d’étude « Pratiques cultuelles de l’Asie occidentale cunéiforme » — Location: Université de Liège (14.May.2023)
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- In Mesopotamia, the temple cult and the practice of offerings to the gods was a well-documented part of society. A temple economy provided the material support for upholding the cultic rituals of a polytheistic pantheon. Elamite cultic practice is lesser known than its Mesopotamian counterpart. Unlike the elaborate Mesopotamian temple archives, evidence on Neo-Elamite cult practice is scarce. The sanctuaries (Chogha Zanbil) and temple mounds (Acropole, Susa) excavated by the délégation archéologique française en Iran give the impression of a similar religious cult practice as in Mesopotamia. The Elamite rock art (e.g. Kul-e Farah and Shikaft-e Salman) and objects (e.g. sit shamshi), displaying worship at open air sanctuaries, enlarge our perspective on Elamite cultic practice. Documentary references (e.g. captions, omens, rock inscriptions, economic texts, letters) provide circumstantial links to the archaeological and artistic materials. Despite the fact that our knowledge of Elamite cultic practice reflects a composite view of iconographic, archaeological and textual data, the variety of these sources does allow us to pursue an integrated data approach of which the results can be tested with a comparative methodology to models of cultic practice in neighboring civilizations. Since one of the most fascinating aspects of Near Eastern cultic practice was the offerings to the gods, this paper will closely examine to which extent one can retrace the gifts offered to the Neo-Elamite gods by applying an integrated data approach. After identifying the commodities and gifts with our variety of resources, one can question whether Neo-Elamite cultic practice was incorporated in Elam’s trade network. Did the Neo-Elamite gods receive their share of luxury products or were they satisfied with gifts of regional origin? Moreover, the long 7th century BC is known as a period of intense interaction and confrontation between Elam and the Neo-Assyrian empire. Neo-Assyrian armies raided the Elamite lowlands on a regular basis, often targeting places of worship and disrupting the supply chains for people and gods. The Neo-Elamite kings, who had often spent considerable parts of their life at Nineveh due to Elamite court intrigues, rebuilt temples and re-initiated cults. In this era of Neo-Assyrian interference, one can question whether the Neo-Elamite royal elite kept to their cultic traditions or whether we can find traces of religious exchange in Neo-Elamite culture. Although the limited corpus of Neo-Elamite historical data will never be able to provide us with an account as detailed as the Mesopotamian narrative on cultic practice, this paper can add new details to the Elamite narrative and therefore enhance our understanding of Elamite culture.
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Gorris, E. (2023). Trade for the Gods…How to retrace the gifts for the gods in Neo-Elamite cultic practice? Journées d’étude « Pratiques cultuelles de l’Asie occidentale cunéiforme », Université de Liège. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/104787