The ancient Elamite Empire lay to the east of Sumer and Akkad. They fought a number of wars with the states of Babylonia, which occasionally conquered them. After the Kassites defeated the Babylonians in 1460 BC, the Elamites defeated the Kassites in 1150 BC. The main Elamite city of Susa lay in the southwestern part of present-day Iran.
Elamite served as one of the official languages of the Persian Empire: Old Persian never displaced it in official use. One hypothesis suggests that the Elamite language had genetic links to the Dravidian languages, but this theory remains controversial.
