In Elam at the time of their king Untashgal (1,265-1,245 BC), a religious centre including a Ziggurat was built called Tchoga Zanbil.

Ziggurat at Tchoga Zanbil

Unearthed there were large numbers of cylinder seals of Kassite style, many of faience. Some very interesting ceramic decoration was found associated with a large gateway. Large, glazed, square, earthenware tiles had holes in their centres through which sizeable pottery “nails” passed to fasten the tiles to the wall. Such tiling was also found in Nineveh. The glazed “mushroom” shaped ends of the nails were inscribed with the king’s name and coloured in blue and green, as were the tiles. The tiles also had moulded decoration such as rosettes in their corners. Some tiles also had circles of blue, green or white decoration. There were large “guardian” statues of bulls, griffins and lions that were also glazed. The blue glaze has been analysed and found to contain oxides of silica, copper, magnesium, iron, titanium, zinc, aluminium and nickel, with potassium, calcium and sodium as a flux (an alkali glaze). Again this is not to imply that the potters mixed these components individually, but some would be found as lesser parts of ores they would no doubt also use in metal smelting. Experimentation would have led to their glaze mixtures.  

In about 1,155 BC the Elamites saw their opportunity and overran Babylonia, taking many trophies back to Susa. This ended the Kassite Dynasty, and the Kassites withdrew to the Zagros Mountains.

9.36 The Early Assyrian Empires

Old Assyria (2,000-1,760 BC)

The State of Assyria was founded around the Northern Babylonian city of Ashur, in Northern Iraq, probably before 2,000 BC, although the city itself probably existed before 5,000 BC. Assyria came to power gradually, gaining political prominence before the time of Hammurabi. The Assyrians were possibly the descendants of the Akkadians, and certainly wrote in Akkadian. Pottery from the 3^rd Millennium is quite distinctive.

Nineveh vase 3,000-2,500 - source
National Museum Iraq, Baghdad

Cuneiform tablet in ceramic case
(bulla) 1,950-1,750 BC - source
Museum of Anatolian
Civilisations, Ankara

The city-state of Ashur had extensive contact with Anatolia, as had the Akkadians in the 3^rd Millennium. As early as 1,950 BC there were some 13 lively trading colonies or “Karums”, operating in their own enclaves just outside Anatolian towns, that were active for over 200 years, thriving particularly in the Anatolian region of Cappadocia. There were no political or military representatives, but the merchants paid tax so the Anatolian rulers provided security. Generations of merchants lived with the locals and joined in their social lives. They used donkey caravans to trade in textiles, metals, perfume and pottery. They also imported Mesopotamian Culture particularly cuneiform writing that started the written history of Anatolia in Akkadian, the language of old Assyria. Clay tablets found in the Karums, some in bullae, included trade documents, wills and receipts. The largest Karum was in the town of Kanesh that had two periods of strong links from 1920 to 1840 BC and from 1798 to 1740 BC.