SUSA - Capital of Elam (v.). The very ancient Šūfan ("lily" or "whiteness"), situated at the southern foot of the mountain range of present-day Luristan, is known from the time of the II dynasty of Ur. Toward the end of the III dynasty of Ur (21st century B.C.) it already had various kings. It became the capital of the glorious Elamite Empire (cf. Gen. 10:22; 14:1) and later of the Neo-Elamite Kingdom.
The Assyrian Ashurbanipal sacked S. (640-639 B.C.), burned the sacred groves, invaded and destroyed the sanctuaries and the great ziggurat of glazed tiles, carried off about 32 gold and silver statues of divinities and kings, violated their tombs and scattered their bones. Among the Samaritans who write to Artaxerxes against the Jews, there are also those deported from S. (Ezra 4:9), probably by Ashurbanipal (the Aramaic Asnappar), who dispersed the inhabitants of S. and of all Elam throughout his Empire and sent various colonists to S.
Under the Persians S. returned to its ancient splendor. Darius I settled there, and his successors gladly spent the spring at Persepolis (v.), the summer at Ecbatana and the winter at S. Darius I (around 500) began the construction of the grandiose royal Palace (more than 100 stairways) (cf. Esth. 1:5); he dwelt there for the last three years and died there in 486. In the time of Artaxerxes I (445-42) a great fire ruined the Apadana, a great hall supported by numerous columns that served for the assemblies of the government (cf. ibid. 1:3); it was restored by Artaxerxes II (404-359), who carried out many rearrangements elsewhere. The events of the book of Esther take place at S.
The excavations, after the discovery of L. Loftus in 1851 (v. bibl.) near the present-day village of Sūš, were begun by M. Dieulafoy (1884-1886) and then continued by J. Morgan (1889) and by the "Mission archéologique en Perse," initially directed by the same. The whole of the ruins is composed of 4 hills or tells. The city of the artisans or lower city, a kind of suburb, is of little interest; it lies to the northeast of the other three tells. These form a very compact group, surrounded by walls: it is the city properly so called. In it, two clearly distinct parts: to the left of the river (the ancient Choaspes, the modern Kerkha), the acropolis or citadel, occupied by the royal palace; to the right (east) the immense tell of the city inhabited by the people. Esth. 3:15; 9:6, 11 etc., distinguishes the two parts with different names: in Hebrew, respectively, bīrāh (Aramaic "fortress," and, by extension, "acropolis") and 'îr. In the citadel (Neh. 1:1) Nehemiah received from one of his pa-
