Elamite war chariots and military equipment at ancient Kabnak (c. 1400 BC)

After entering the second millennium BC as a military super-power, Elam faded into historical obscurity upon its withdrawal from the broader Near Eastern political scene in 1763 BC and only re-emerged much later as a major player with a sequence of incursions in Mesopotamia beginning in the thirteenth century and culminating in the 1155 BC fall of the Kassites. During the intervening centuries, neither written nor archaeological sources offer clear signs that Elamite territory had come under the authority of any foreign power. Here the authors propose that a re-examination of evidence from the ancient settlement of Kabnak (modern Haft Tepe), approximately 17 km southeast of the Elamite lowland capital of Susa, discloses a previously unnoticed mid-fifteenth to mid-fourteenth century BC state-controlled arsenal of war chariots and weaponry that may hold a key to comprehending Elam’s apparent continued resistance to outside forces and its rise as a military superpower in the thirteenth century.