Some Central Asian history from 2000-1500BC

Gold cup of the Trialeti culture

This post will look at the years 2000-1500BC for the region of Central Asia. Central Asia is a little tricky to describe and for the purposes of this post it will include the Pontic Steppes (referred to in previous European posts), the boreal lands north of Siberia and all the steppe lands from the black soil of the Ukraine, the highlands of the Tibetan Plateau, to the northern steppes on the borders of China. I will also include the history of the Iranian Plateau here. It is not Central Asian, but it does link the northern steppes with the regions of Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.

The same caveats that I have mentioned before must be mentioned again. I am not a professional historian, merely someone who finds history interesting. So, all of my data should be questioned heavily.

This period predates most writing, so much of what we learn will come from archaeology, with some additional input from linguistics, genetics, biology and geology. Dendrochronology is of less use here than in Europe, but we have the great fortune to be close enough to written history to be able to use folklore and legend here in a way that we have not been able to do in the posts about prehistoric Europe. There will however be some writings, mainly from nearby Mesopotamia, which shed some light on the kingdoms of what is now Iran.

Shahr-e-Sukhteh

Around the century of the 2000’s BC, we see the Kulli culture of Baluchistan coming to an end. This probably signals that the Indus Valley Civilisation, upon which the Kulli culture appears to have been based, was entering a period of difficulty and any influence on the hinterlands appears to have ending. It is around this time that the trade from Meluhha to Mesopotamia stops and the two civilisations drift apart, leaving each other as only a memory.

The Kura-Araxes culture south of the Caucasus came to an end around this time and the Trialeti culture, based in what is now Georgia, came to prominence. The Trialeti are known for their spectacular kurgan burials and might possibly be counted as a steppe culture.

Much further to the north and east, in Siberia, the Okunev culture comes to an end and the sprawling Andronovo culture. The Andronovo culture was in many ways an extension of the Sintashta culture. It covered a vast swathe of territory. The Andronovo region stretched from the north of the Caspian Sea past Lake Balkhash to the east and stretching into what is now Xinjiang in China. To the south it stretched down as far south as the BMAC, whose culture it seems to have influenced.

Figures from the Bactri-Margiana Archaeological Complex

The Andronovo culture should in no way be thought of as a single group and definitely not as an empire, but it is rather a cultural expansion, probably driven by the now perfected methods of chariot warfare. Every group on the steppe now adopted this new method or faced absorption by those that did. The transient nature of steppe life depended on the herds of livestock that could be kept. This means that any group that specialised in mobile warfare could steal the herds of those that did not with impunity. This gave a strong impetus for all groups to adopt a mobile form of warfare, in this case, the chariot.

In Elam, the city of Susa was conquered by the Ur III Dynasty in their expansion under their king Shulgi, but it won independence around the turn of the millennium under a Shimashki king known as Kindattu.

After he roared over Susa, Adamshah, and the land of Awan like a storm, made them submit in a single day, and captured their lords…
Inscription 2 of Ibbi-Sin, the last king of the Ur III Dynasty. The bombastic description here probably masks a weakening of Sumerian power

In the century of the 1900’s BC the Shimashki Dynasty in Elam ended. It is possible that this was not a dynasty in our modern understanding of the word, but that the king list that we have represents a number of rulers, some of whom ruled consecutively and who may have been allied, but from completely different families. Our understanding of Elam at this time is very limited. We have some knowledge, but apart from the names of some possible kings, we know very little. The Epartid Dynasty, which is similarly obscure, succeeded it.

Reconstructed chariot of the Sintashta culture

Also around this time, the Abashevo Culture, near the Volga River and the Ural Mountains, came to an end. It had however influenced the nearby Sintashta culture, who at this time were making spoked-wheel chariots, which allowed even small horses to become effective for battle.

Around the century of the 1800’s BC the Sintashta culture itself was drawing to an end, becoming subsumed in the larger Andronovo culture that surrounded it. The people of the Sintashta culture had built a large number of settlements on what is today just north of the northern border between Kazakhstan and Russia. They had been probably the first people in the world to pioneer using light, spoked-wheeled chariots. These imposing vehicles would have freed their hands for throwing javelins or shooting arrows with much greater freedom than could have been done from horseback. On the open grasslands these chariots must have been formidable status symbols. They were not entirely nomadic either. Contact with the BMAC to the south had introduced the idea of urbanism and some areas are even quite densely populated, for this time period.

Artists vision of what the town of Arkaim once looked like

One of the settlements is a place called Arkaim. This was a circular fortified settlement consisting of two concentric rings of walls, with houses and workshops in between. There were bronze working areas included in the city and it may have been something more akin to a factory city than a normal settlement. The site of Arkaim has been taken up by many neo-pagans who make some wild speculations about it. It is almost certainly not the birthplace of Zoroaster. However, the Sintashta peoples almost certainly were Indo-Iranian speakers and their religion probably had some similarities with the later religious practices described in the Rig Veda and the older parts of the Avesta.

The Indo-Iranian speakers of the Sintashta and Andronovo cultures were mingling with the people of the Bactro-Margiana Archaeological Complex and were probably migrating southwards in certain instances. The relationship between the steppe peoples and the sedentary peoples of what is now Turkmenistan seems to have been fairly peaceful. We have no evidence for the steppe people destroying the cities of the BMAC. The BMAC maintained trade relations with the people of the Harappan or Indus Valley Civilisation. This means that as the steppe people came into contact with the BMAC, that they would also have come into contact with the traders and diplomats of the cities of the Indus Valley.

Artwork from the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological
Complex

The climate was beginning to change over the course of this century. The monsoon systems, which had reached far to the north, into what is now Afghanistan, began to shift further south in unpredictable fashion. This may have caused the abandonment of the city of Shahr-e-Sukhteh, on the far eastern edges of what is now Iran. The loss of the rains would have led to the drying of the Ghaggar-Hakra River, which was relied upon by the Indus Valley Civilisation.

Around the century of the 1700’s BC the shifting of the monsoons began to take its toll. The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) seems to have ceased to exist around this time. The largest city of the region, Gonur Tepe, was abandoned. The river it had been situated on had moved and the lack of rains made it pointless to re-found the city elsewhere. The peoples of the BMAC probably adapted the ways of the life of the steppe people among them. The Indo-Iranian languages of the steppes were probably adopted and some religious and linguistic elements adopted and fused into the new culture.

Also around this time, the Srubna (or Srubnaya) Culture, began to flourish on the steppes north of the Caspian and the Black Seas. These were another variant of the steppe cultures. They used bronze weapons and implements. They were very similar to the Andonovo culture to the east, but they buried their dead in timber-lined graves (which is what "Srubnaya" means in Russian).

Reconstructed timber hut of the Srubna culture

In Elam, the Elamite monarchs had become powerful enough to be regional hegemons over lower Mesopotamia, until they were defeated by the Amorites of Babylon under Hammurabi. Hammurabi had made an alliance with the city-state of Larsa to help him defeat the Elamites and once he had confined their influence to Susa and the mountains of Iran, Hammurabi turned on his previous allies. After breaking the power of Larsa and Eshnunna, Hammurabi seems to have tried to conquer Elam itself. It’s unlikely that he fully succeeded, but Elam may have paid tribute to Babylon for some decades.

Around the century of the 1600’s BC the Trialeti culture ended, in the region that is now part of the country of Georgia. This was a kurgan culture, meaning that they buried their important deceased in large earthen mounds raised above the plains. Like the earlier Maykop culture, they had been a transitional region between the Mesopotamian city-dwellers to the south and the steppe cultures to the north. It is possible that the Trialeti culture had been led by Indo-European speaking peoples.

Around the century of the 1500’s BC, the Epartid Dynasty in Elam ended and was replaced by the Kidinuid Dynasty. The end of the Epartid Dynasty marks the end of what has been termed the Old Elamite Period and the beginning of the Middle Elamite Period. The Kidinuid Dynasty is not particularly well known either however, unfortunately.

Elamite artwork

Near the Caspian Sea, south of where the BMAC culture had flourished, the Yaz culture began to become evident. This was in some ways the first distinctively Iranian culture. Plenty of ancient cultures had existed in the Iranian Plateau but they spoke non-Iranian languages. The Yaz culture almost certainly spoke an Iranian language that had begun to split from the Indic languages. The Yaz culture was settled, but with remnants of nomadism. Their towns were mixtures of Sintashta and BMAC structures. They clearly had horses and chariots, but they do not seem to have buried their dead. The aversion to burial of the dead seems to reflect the earliest beginnings of the Iranian religious tradition that would eventually become Zoroastrianism.

The Indo-Iranian language family seems to have split around this time, with the Indic languages arising around this time period. This century probably saw the composition of the earliest parts of the Rig Veda, as the speakers of Sanskrit moved from central Asia into the subcontinent.  Just to be clear, I do not believe that the speakers of Sanskrit invaded India. I believe that they probably had been involved in the subcontinent for many centuries. As they were trading and intermingling with the BMAC culture, they would have been aware of the area now known as India. When the climate shifted and the rivers dried up for the Harappan civilisation, the speakers of Sanskrit moved into the vacuum. With their new culture and status symbols like horses and chariots, they would have been people to emulate. There were not even necessarily that many of them who moved, at least not at once. But I believe that some form of migration from central Asia had to have happened. But here is not the place for a full discussion. Below is a video giving an idea of how the Vedic chanting sounds today.

Another migration of sorts, which might be similar in certain respects to the migration into India, was the emergence of the mysterious Mitanni kingdom. This kingdom was a Hurrian kingdom in the north of Mesopotamia, near the Khabur Triangle. The people spoke Hurrian, a language of the Hurro-Urartian family. It was not related to the other languages around it, or to any that are spoken today. But while the people and the kingdom spoke Hurrian, were culturally Hurrian and had Hurrian gods, the rulers did not. The rulers of the land had Indo-Iranian names and seem to have worshipped at least a few of the Indo-Iranian gods. They were also skilled charioteers, used an Indo-Iranian word for warrior, “maurya” and were experts on horsemanship. The occurrences of the names of Mitanni kings and their gods on treaty documents are the earliest instances of Indo-Iranian languages preserved to us. It’s not clear exactly who they were or how they got there but my own theory is that they were a group of mercenaries who had been hired by the Hurrians and who took control of the land. Sadly we know almost nothing of the Mitanni and everything we do know is from the writings of their enemies. Perhaps one day we shall find out more of these mysterious charioteer kings.

Mitanni era cylinder seal

This is the five hundred years of the period briefly described. The period sees continued linguistic evolution, with languages breaking into groups that we recognise today. Elam continued to be a force to be reckoned with, albeit a poorly documented one. The climate shifts that disrupted the Harappan and BMAC civilisations continued, with the monsoons moving almost entirely south into the subcontinent. This led to the downfall of many of urban cultures of central Asia and allowed the semi-pastoral steppe cultures to expand. We shall continue the story in the next blog.

Related Blog Posts:
Some Central Asian history from 4000-3000BC
Some Central Asian history from 3000-2000BC
Some Central Asian history from 2000-1500BC
Some Central Asian history from 1500-1000BC
Some Central Asian history from 1000-750BC
Some Central Asian history from 750-500BC

Some Central Asian history from 3000-2000BC

Model of a Bactrian Camel from
the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex

This post will look at the years 3000-2000BC for the region of Central Asia. Central Asia is a little tricky to describe and for the purposes of this post it will include the Pontic Steppes (referred to in previous European posts), the boreal lands north of Siberia and all the steppe lands from the black soil of the Ukraine, the highlands of the Tibetan Plateau, to the northern steppes on the borders of China. I will also include the history of the Iranian Plateau here. It is not Central Asian, but it does link the northern steppes with the regions of Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.

The same caveats that I have mentioned before must be mentioned again. I am not a professional historian, merely someone who finds history interesting. So, all of my data should be questioned heavily.

This period predates most writing, so much of what we learn will come from archaeology, with some additional input from linguistics, genetics, biology and geology. Dendrochronology is of less use here than in Europe but we have the great fortune to be close enough to written history to be able to use folklore and legend here in a way that we have not been able to do in the posts about prehistoric Europe. There will however be some writings, mainly from nearby Mesopotamia, which shed some light on the kingdoms of what is now Iran.

Carved item from Konar Sandal
Possibly a forgery

To speak of the history of the regions of the centre of the Eurasian landmass, we must speak of what this world looked like in the year 3000BC. North of the Caucasus Mountains the Maykop culture was possibly ending. Further north than this, in the Pontic Steppes, the Yamna culture, a possible homeland of the Proto-Indo-European speaking peoples, was flourishing. Possibly the Yamna culture was in conflict with the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture in what are now the lands of Ukraine. Further east in the Altaic region, the Afasanevo culture, which seems to have had a similar material culture to the Yamna culture, was also flourishing. At the southern edges of the Ural Mountains, the speakers of the Uralic languages seem to have been active around this time, with the dialect of Proto-Finno-Ugric possibly branching off around this date. The Tibetan Plateau was populated by Sino-Tibetan speakers from the northern Chinese Plains around this date.

South of the Caucasus, the Kura-Araxes culture flourished, with settlements such as Shengavit being strongly fortified. The Kura-Araxes culture may have been in the ascendant at this time, with the settlement of Arslantepe in Anatolia burned at this time, possibly by the Kura-Araxes peoples.

In Iran itself, Proto-Elamite script was in use. It is hard to pinpoint exactly the time that this region moves from history to prehistory, as the scripts are mostly indecipherable. It is however fair to say that peoples of south-western Iran had become at least partly literate at this point. Large urban settlements that can with justification be called cities exist in Susa, Godin Tepe and Tepe Sialk. A possible settlement existed at this time at Konar Sandal, but the Jiroft culture, of which Konar Sandal is part, is poorly studied (having only been discovered in 2001).

Possible ziggurat at Tepe Sialk

Around 2900 a huge mudbrick structure that may have been intended as a ziggurat was constructed in Tepe Sialk, in what is currently north-western Iran. This may be the oldest existing ziggurat in the world, if this is indeed the case. Around this time vessels have been found in nearby Godin Tepe that show signs of fermentation, which was probably intentional. This is perhaps the oldest indication of humans using alcohol, although it is likely that this long predates this find.

Around 2800 Shahr-e-Sukhteh seems to have been burned (thus ending the period known as Shahr-e-Sukhteh I). This was a city that was in eastern Iran, near the present-day border with Afghanistan. This was the largest city of the Helmand culture, which seems to have had contact with the Indus Valley Civilisation and to have formed a bridge between the Indus Valley culture and the cities and cultures to the west, like Susa and Tepe Sialk. "Shahr-e-Sukhteh" means "The Burnt City" and it lives up to its name, being burned down four separate times over the millennia. But it was also a vibrant cultural hub and was a very large settlement for its time.

Buildings at Shahr-e-Sukhteh

Around 2700 Elamite culture evolved from Proto-Elamite culture. It influenced, and was heavily influenced by, the nearby Sumerian culture of Lower Mesopotamia, but the Elamites certainly spoke their own language and had their own gods and political organisations. The writing script Linear Elamite, which is yet another untranslated Elamite script, dates from around this time. The interaction between Susa and Sumer seems to have been quite hostile at times, with Mesopotamian texts indication a possible war between the city of Kish and Susa during this era.

Also around this time, the Indo-Iranian languages may have begun to split off from Proto-Indo-European as a dialect. Of course this is very conjectural, but it is a plausible date.

Around the time of 2600 the Yamna culture, that had inhabited the steppes north of the Black Sea, seems to have evolved into what is known as the Poltavka culture, which might possibly be identified as the culture or homeland of the Indo-Iranian branch of Proto-Indo-European. This might suggest that other branches, such as Proto-Hittite, Proto-Tocharian, Proto-Germanic etc., had speakers that had migrated away from that particular area of the steppes, but caution is always needed in applying such broad brushes to complex language shifts.

Animation on pot from
Shahr-e-Sukhteh

Around this time Shahr-i-Sukhteh was flourishing and reaching perhaps the high point of its culture. One of the most fascinating artefacts to emerge from this period was a jar with four similar images on it, which when spun on a wheel would produce an image of a goat leaping up to a tree. This is the world’s earliest known attempt at animation. The Burned City was effectively producing the Photoshop or After Effects of the ancient world.

There were a number of other wonderful things that were being done here at this time though, with evidence that the inhabitants practiced a form of brain surgery (or cranial surgery to be more accurate). Much survives of the city because of a large graveyard outside the city, which may contain up to 40,000 burials. The remains of the city are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Around the year 2500 a great many things seem to have been happening. This is probably an illusion, as archaeologists will, in the absence of fixed dates, round their dates to the nearest half millennium. So if something happened between 2700 and 2300 and you were unsure, you might just say it happened in 2500. So with that caveat in mind, let’s see what things archaeologists’ record happening for these years.

In the eastern steppes, the Afanasevo culture seems to have come to an end around this time and the Okunev culture seems to have come to prominence. The people of the Okunev culture may have come from further east, from the region near Lake Baikal. They raised sheep and cattle and buried their dead in slab tombs; buried face upwards towards the sky and with their earthly goods surrounding them.

Yamna Arrowheads

After the gradual decline of the Yamna culture, the Potapovka culture and the Abashevo cultures began to flourish to the north of where the Yamna culture had been before. These cultures resembled the Yamna cultures to some extent and used a similar pottery type, although again, it must be remembered that “pots are not people”. The Potapovka cultures in particular began to show horse remains in their kurgans, which were impressive and occasionally had wheeled vehicles as well.

Tepe Sialk appears to have been burned around this time, although the nearby Kura-Araxes culture may not have been at fault, as the settlement of Shengavit appears to be abandoned around this period as well.

In Elam, the semi-mythical Dynasty of Awan seems to have come to power around 2500. Awan may have been the city of Godin Tepe and the names of their kings survive from a king list. But like many king lists of the ancient world, even if the names are right, the order may be confused. It’s unclear if the kings of Awan controlled all of Elam and also not clear if they actually controlled Susa, which was a semi-independent city-state in its own right. The writing system known as “Elamite cuneiform”, as opposed to other systems such as Linear Elamite, or Proto-Elamite, was probably in use around this time, although no texts are extant from that exact era. Around this time the city of Lagash seems to have been dominant in southern Mesopotamia and the ruler, Eannatum, claims laconically to have conquered Susa.

He defeated Susa. 
Inscription of Eannatum

Drinking vessel from Kulli Culture

Around this time the Kulli culture in Baluchistan began to flourish. This had some similarities with the other cultures such as the Jiroft and the Helmand cultures to the west and north but was most influenced by the Indus Valley Civilisation to its east. Numerous Indus Valley seals have been found and the art styles are very similar to each other. The main cultural difference is that the main Kulli site of Nindowari seems to have had a monumental mound, like a proto-ziggurat, that rose to 25 metres. This is in contrast to the Indus Valley sites, which do not seem have monumental architecture.

The city of Konar Sandal, in the Jiroft culture, seems to have reached the peak of its cultural output around this time, as does the nearby Helmand civilisation. However, true to its name of “The Burnt City”, Shahr-e-Sukhteh appears to have been burned down again around this time.

Around the year 2400, far away from Elam, or the steppes, or even the Tibetan Plateau, in the Arctic Ocean north of the Bering Straits, the last woolly mammoth on earth died. I find it astonishing that this last remnant of megafauna could have coexisted with the building of Stonehenge and the pyramids. It has nothing really to do with the rest of this blog, but I felt it was worth mentioning somewhere and it might as well be here.

Clay goddess figurines from Helmand Culture
Object on left from Mundigak

In what is present-day Afghanistan, the city of Mundigak flourished around this time, having close trade relations with the Indus Valley, but differing from them in having large mounds (possibly for temples or palaces) prominent in their city. Around this time, the cities of Tepe Yahya and Bampur (in present day south-eastern Iran) became prominent. It appears that not only did they trade with each other, but that they also traded across the straits with the civilisations on the Arabian Peninsula. This, along with evidence from Mesopotamia, is yet more evidence of a strong trade network connecting the Indus and the Tigris/Euphrates.

Stele of Naram-Sin,
an Akkadian conqueror

Around the year 2300, Susa moves very definitely into the realms of history, as the conqueror Sargon of Akkad conquered the city and its hinterland. The descendants of Sargon would have further campaigns in this area. Shahr-i-Sukhteh was once again burned, marking the end of the Shahr-i-Sukhteh III period, but this is unlikely to have been by the Akkadians, as it is very far from Mesopotamia.

This time period is also a possible date for the Maikop kurgan, north of the Caucasus. This was described in the last blog post in detail and the fact that the dates assigned to it are up to a thousand years apart means we must be very cautious with dating in this era.

Also around this time the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex emerges. This is often shortened to the BMAC for convenience. This was a culture in present-day Turkmenistan and northern Afghanistan. It was an urban civilisation, possibly a blending of Neolithic farmers from the region and migrants from what is now Iran. This area had been urbanised previously but around this time the cities, particularly the large city of Gonur Tepe, become very prominent. They had trading relationships with the cultures of Iran and the Indus Valley civilisation. They were possibly the first people to domesticate the Bactrian camel.

Anau seal from Bactria-Margiana Archaeological
Complex. Image credit here.
Please see article for further discussion of item

Most intriguingly a small seal has been found that was incised with hitherto unknown characters that vaguely resemble later Chinese characters. Some people extrapolate that the BMAC was a literate culture and that it was through them that the idea of writing passed eastwards towards the Chinese plains. This is extremely conjectural and should be treated with extreme scepticism. But the level of culture displayed by the BMAC, particularly at their “capital” Gonur Tepe, would certainly allow one to believe that they were literate.


Around the year 2200 the Helmand culture and the cities of Shahr-i-Sukhteh and Mundigak began to go into a decline. It is possible that the monsoon cycle was changing and that rains no longer reached as far north as they previously had. This is interesting as the Indus Valley Civilisation begins to experience some difficulties around this time. The rain-fed Ghaggar-Hakra River (sometimes referred to conjecturally as the Sarasvati River) seems to have begun drying at this time.

Susa Kinglist describing Awan Dynasty

The first definite texts of Elamite cuneiform date from this time, although as mentioned earlier, it was probably in use significantly earlier. The first texts seem to be treaties between the Akkadian kings and unknown vassals in the Elamite heartlands.

Around the year 2100 the Poltavka culture in seems to have come to an end and evolved into the Sintashta culture north of the Caspian Sea. Again, the Sintashta did not differ greatly from the Poltavka, nor the Poltavka from the Yamna. The main difference is that the Poltavka had substantially greater grave goods in their tombs. The Sintashta by contrast also had large amounts of grave goods in their tombs, but also chariots. The Lake of Krivoye Ozero was a place of burial for the Sintashta culture and the first true chariot burial in the world is there. The chariot was the first indisputable example of the horse as a weapon. Prior to the development of the chariot we have no way of knowing if horses were rode and it seems likely that they were more of a draught animal. But with the chariot, individuals could fight from a stable platform and move at great speeds in battle. A new age of warfare had begun.

Statue of goddess
dedicated by Kutik-Inshushinak

Further south, in Susa, the last king of the Awan Dynasty according to the Susa Kinglist, Kutik-Inshushinak, shook off the yoke of the fading Akkadian Empire and made Susa independent. He conquered Anshan, a city somewhere to the east of Susa, but whose location is not securely known. He then embarked on a building program and fostered the use of Linear Elamite. However, after the death of Kutik-Inshushinak the use of Linear Elamite would fade away, leaving Elamite cuneiform as the main writing method of the Elamites. After his death the Shimashki Dynasty, which may not have been a dynasty in any real sense of the word, ruled Elam. However, as is so often the case with Elam, we know very little about them.

As our period comes to a close, around the year 2000BC, we see the Kulli culture of Baluchistan coming to an end. This probably signals that the Indus Valley Civilisation, upon which the Kulli culture appears to have been based, was entering a period of difficulty and any influence on the hinterlands appears to have ending. It is around this time that the trade from Meluhha to Mesopotamia stops and the two civilisations drift apart, leaving each other as only a memory.

The Kura-Araxes culture south of the Caucasus comes to an end around this time and the Trialeti culture, based in what is now Georgia, come to prominence. The Trialeti are known for their spectacular kurgan burials and might possibly be counted as a steppe culture.

Gold goblet from Trialeti culture

Much further to the north and east, in Siberia, the Okunev culture comes to an end and the sprawling Andronovo culture. The Andronovo culture was in many ways an extension of the Sintashta culture. It covered a vast swathe of territory. The Andronovo region stretched from the north of the Caspian Sea past Lake Balkhash to the east and stretching into what is now Xinjiang in China. To the south it stretched down as far south as the BMAC, where it seems to have influenced the culture.

The Andronovo culture should in no way be thought of as a single group and definitely not as an empire but it is rather a cultural expansion, probably driven by the now perfected methods of chariot warfare. Every group on the steppe now adopted this new method or faced absorption by those that did. The transient nature of steppe life depended on the herds of livestock that could be kept. This means that any group that specialised in mobile warfare could steal the herds of those that did not with impunity. This gave a strong impetus for all groups to adopt a mobile form of warfare, in this case, the chariot.

Graveyard from Shahr-i-Sukhteh

In Elam, the city of Susa was conquered by the Ur III Dynasty in their expansion under their king Shulgi, but it won independence around the turn of the millennium under a Shimashki king known as Kindattu.

After he roared over Susa, Adamshah, and the land of Awan like a storm, made them submit in a single day, and captured their lords…
Inscription 2 of Ibbi-Sin, the last king of the Ur III Dynasty. The bombastic description here probably masks a weakening of Sumerian power

Ornament from Bactria-Margiana Archaeoligical Complex

Thus the period comes to a close, with Elam locked in a perpetual conflict with their Mesopotamian neighbours. The steppe cultures have mastered the two-wheel chariot and used it to expand greatly. The Indo-European languages have broken up into their main constituents, with the gradual eastwards movements of the Indo-Iranian speakers, possibly tied in with the Andronovo culture. A new and vibrant civilisation has arisen in the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, but is threatened by the chariot cultures to the north and changing climate patterns. The changing climate and trade patterns also threaten the Helmand and Jiroft cultures of south-eastern Iran. While there is a very great deal that can be written about the central area of the Eurasian landmass at this time, it must be remembered that what we write is nearly all taken from archaeology and linguistics and only a tiny fraction of the area, Elam and its hinterlands, are able to provide us texts for history proper. Hopefully this has shed some light however.

Related Blog Posts:
Some Central Asian history from 4000-3000BC
Some Central Asian history from 3000-2000BC
Some Central Asian history from 2000-1500BC
Some Central Asian history from 1500-1000BC
Some Central Asian history from 1000-750BC
Some Central Asian history from 750-500BC