Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 2023; 113(1): 3–33 Abhandlung Hamzeh Ghobadizadeh and Walther Sallaberger* Šulgi in the Kuhdasht Plain Bricks from a Battle Monument at the Crossroads of Western Pish-e Kuh and the Localisation of Kimaš and Ḫurti https://doi.org/10.1515/za-2023-0002 Abstract: Several exemplars of a brick inscription of Šulgi were found in the Kuhdasht Plain in the province of Lorestan, Iran. The reference to the destruction of Kimaš and Ḫurti provides strong evidence for the localisation of these two Zagros polities. The Ur III campaigns testify to the key role of the western Pish-e Kuh in overland traffic from the Diyala region or from Khuzestan to the central Zagros. As the source of the “copper from Kimaš,” we propose the ancient mines of Deh Hosein. 1 The Geographical Setting 1.1 Study Area in the Kuhdasht Plain The province of Lorestan in western Iran is conspicuously underrepresented in archaeological and historical maps and overviews of the Early Bronze Age.1 This results mainly from the relatively low number of archaeological investi- gations in that region. After the excavations and surveys of Schmidt in 1938 (Schmidt et al. 1989) and Stein (1940), a Danish–Iranian expedition conducted surveys in the areas of Shah Bodagh, Hulailan, and Kuhdasht from 1962 to 1964 (Meldgaard et al. 1963; Mortensen 1975; Thrane 1965). Clare Goff surveyed the plains and valleys of the Lorestan part of the Pish-e Kuh region (“in front of the mountain,” i. e. the large area between the Kabir Kuh and the Kuh-e Alvand mountain ranges) in 1963/64, and she excavated at Babajan, in the eastern Pish-e Kuh region (Mirbag valley), in 1967 and 1968 (Goff 1968; 1969; 1970; 1971; 1976; 1977; 1978; 1985). Iranian archaeologists performed several small-scale surveys (Dehghani Fard 2005; 2006) and rescue excavations along the Seymareh river, mostly pertaining to sites of the Sasanian period (Moghaddam 2008; Darabi 2008; Amiri 2009; Hasanpour 2009; 2011; Lashkari et al. 2010). On the other hand, the Belgian expedition to Luristan concentrated on the Pusht-e Kuh (“behind the mountain”) region, the 1 As examples, one may cite the work of Potts (1999) (with the wider region of Luristan treated for the mid-third millennium only) or the maps provided by Steinkeller (1982; 2013); for Luristan in the Bronze Age see Potts (2013). *Corresponding authors: Hamzeh Ghobadizadeh, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran; Email: hqobadizadeh@gmail.com Walther Sallaberger, Institut für Assyriologie und Hethitologie, LMU München, Germany; Email: wasa@lmu.de Article note: The article is the result of intensive cooperation and dis- cussion of both authors. The data used for sections 1 to 3 are provided by Hamzeh Ghobadizadeh, whereas Walther Sallaberger prepared sections 4 to 6. Of course, the selection of data, the presentation, and the interpreta- tions and conclusions depend on the discussions and conclusions of both authors, and this is reflected by the double authorship. We are very grateful to Seyed Amin Ghasemi, the director of Cul- tural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts of Lorestan province; Zahra Ba- harvand, Mohamdreza Mohammadian and Amian Safayzadeh, for their support; Rouhollah Shirazi, then director of the Iranian Centre for Archae- ological Research (ICAR), and Siamak Sarlak; to professors Kamaladin Niknami, Abbas Moghaddam and Sajjad Alibaigi from the University of Tehran for their supervision of Ghobadizade’s doctoral dissertation whose results were fundamental to writing this article. Furthermore, we thank Wouter Henkelman for bringing us together, and Thomas Stöllner. Zsom- bor Földi kindly provided detailed information regarding the previously known exemplar (see below section 4). For reviews of an earlier version and discussions pertaining to var- ious aspects of the article, we thank Kristina Franke, Anna Glenn, Paola Paoletti, Dan Potts, Ingo Schrakamp, and Piotr Steinkeller, and the partic- ipants of the Kolloquium zum Alten Orient (July 19, 2022) where we first presented our results. Anna Glenn was so kind to correct the English of the article. Abbreviations follow the Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorder- asiatischen Archäologie; those for Ur III documents follow BDTNS (http:// bdtns.filol.csic.es/).