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Elamites’ Fear of the Underworld Judgment According to Elamite Texts

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Archaeology of Iran in the Historical Period

Part of the book series: University of Tehran Science and Humanities Series ((UTSHS))

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Abstract

Death and what awaits one’s soul afterwards have always been significant in antiquity, giving rise to different beliefs. Some groups of people believed that their souls would be accompanied or even judged by some deities in the underworld according to their deeds. Elamite Inšušinak is among these supreme deities. Inšušinak and judgment in the underworld has yet to be studied and this paper focuses on whether the Elamites feared Inšušinak’s underworld judgment. It is possible that Inšušinak held an important position as his titles, “The King’s Supporter”, “Great God”, “Great Supporter”, “Our City’s Supporter”, “My God”, “My King”, “My Ancestor”, “Susa Supporter”, and “Kings’ God” indicate. He was also one of the supreme gods in the Elamite trinity of deities and was even related to the treaty, oath, and witness. Additionally, Inšušinak was the “Deity of the Deceased and Graves”, and his assistants in the underworld were Išmekarab and Lagamal. The Elamites may have indeed feared Inšušinak, thereby placing him in the position of judge of the underworld. While the significance of his role as an underworld deity and judge of souls is not directly referred to in Elamite texts, but the pieces of evidence are as one can assume that the fear of soul judgment was the reason to bestow this crucial position to this supreme deity; his judgment was dreaded by them accordingly.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This author appreciates the helps of Dr. Kamyar Abdi throughout the course of this study and during the writing of this article.

  2. 2.

    Napiriša and Inšušinak were used instead of each other and sometimes Napiriša was written as DINGIR. GAL, The Great God, and was read as Inšušinak in Susa (de Miroschedji 1980, 1981: 25).

  3. 3.

    The cooperation of deities in soul judgment is also observed in other ancient beliefs. 420 judges were believed to assist Osiris with judging souls in Egypt (Kleveta 1949: 380). Mesopotamia’s Nanna-suen or sin was also an underworld judge. Šamaš, the Sun Deity, was the judge of material world (Penglase 1995: 193) and Anunakis were seven gods of the deceased and were present at the judgment of souls (Kleveta 1949: 378). The Baylonians offered sacrifices to these seven Gods to prevent diseases (Penglase 1995: 193).

  4. 4.

    Additionally, some extraordinary yet normal sized clay heads were found close to the deceased’s head in graves of Susa and Haftteppe. Accordingly, Álvarez-Mon (2005: 114, 121), with respect to a few pieces of evidence, safely suspects that these heads were the guards or companions of the tomb owners through the dreadful underworld.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Texts and Inscriptions Research Center of RICHT, Tehran, Iran

    Maryam Dara

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  1. Maryam Dara
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Correspondence to Maryam Dara .

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  1. Department of Archaeology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Kamal-Aldin Niknami

  2. Department of Archaeology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Ali Hozhabri

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Dara, M. (2020). Elamites’ Fear of the Underworld Judgment According to Elamite Texts. In: Niknami, KA., Hozhabri, A. (eds) Archaeology of Iran in the Historical Period. University of Tehran Science and Humanities Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41776-5_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41776-5_7

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