Production and Mortuary Consumption of Copper-Base Materials at Susa in the Early to Middle Bronze Age Transition

Abstract At the critical junction of the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, marked by the fall of the Ur iii polity, the city of Susa in today’s southwest Iran left Mesopotamian control and became the lowland seat of the Shimashki and then Sukkalmah dynasts of the Zagros mountains, who elevated Elam as a significant power on the dynamic early Middle Bronze Age Near Eastern geopolitical stage. This transition ushered in new political, economic, and social conditions, which this paper argues can be detected in Susa’s mortuary record, particularly in the consumption of copper-base materials. A comparison of burial assemblages and evidence for the copper-base metallurgy industry before and after the transition demonstrates that while copper-base objects had already played a critical social role under Mesopotamian rule, their deployment in the structuring of Susian society expanded with the transition to eastern rule and more widespread changes in economic production and trade.