The Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, had grown tired of the Elamites' attacks on the Mesopotamians, and he decided to destroy Susa as punishment.

[1] In 647 BC, the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal leveled the city during a war in which the people of Susa apparently participated on the other side.

A tablet unearthed in 1854 by Austen Henry Layard in Nineveh reveals Ashurbanipal as an "avenger", seeking retribution for the humiliations the Elamites had inflicted on the Mesopotamians over the centuries.

I entered its palaces, I opened their treasuries where silver and gold, goods and wealth were amassed...

The tombs of their ancient and recent kings I devastated, I exposed to the sun, and I carried away their bones toward the land of Ashur.