Elam

I've run across references to them in the Bible, and in ancient history, but until now never took the time to figure out who they were.

It turns out that's not entirely easy.

Wikipedia has an entry, and there's a Youtube series.

Very little remains. King lists in the region are not always consistent. Cross-referencing what is known from Sumer and Babylon lets scholars reconstruct a history of the kings (or the Great Regents of the Sukkalmah dynasty) and some of the wars, but the names are empty and there's hardly a hint of anybody else. "Ebarat the King. Kuk Kalla, son of Kuk-Sharum, servant of Shilhaha." You'd swear somebody was just making up sounds: "Kuk-Nashur", "Tan-Uli", "Tempti-Halki", "Shirukduh."

It doesn't help that the Assyrians did their usual number on Elam and the fragmented "kingdom" never recovered. The language slowly died out and the Medes and the Greeks and the Parthians and the Arabs defined the culture thereafter.

"I, Napir-Asu, wife of Untash-Napirisha. He who would seize my statue, who would smash it, who would destroy its inscription, who would erase my name, may he be smitten by the curse of Napirisha, of Kiririsha, and of Inshushinka, that his name shall become extinct, that his offspring be barren, that the forces of Beltiya, the great goddess, shall sweep down on him. This is Napir-Asu's offering."

Her statue is headless. For what it's worth, the name of the smasher is extinct. "There is no remembrance of earlier things; and also of the later things which will occur, there will be for them no remembrance among those who will come later still." They were a powerful people 10 times longer than the USA has been a nation.