Elam was conquered by the Akkadian Empire around 2325 BC and was then ruled by a sequence of Akkadian-appointed governors before independence was restored a little over a century later.

After the reign of the powerful Elamite king Puzur-Inshushinak, Elam was conquered again c. 2100 BC by the Sumerian Third Dynasty of Ur.

Native Elamite rule was after a few decades restored under the Shimashki dynasty during the reign of Ur III king Ibbi-Sin.

The so-called Neo-Elamite kingdom came under the rule of the Hubanid dynasty in the early 7th century BC, which initiated a short period of intense internal conflict and meddling in Assyrian and Babylonian affairs.

[4] The rulers preceding Hishep-ratep and Luh-ishan fall into the Early Dynastic period, though their historicity beyond appearing in the king list cannot be verified.

[5] The Awan dynasty was not an entirely contiguous family line and was for a little over a century interrupted by governors appointed by the Akkadian Empire.

After the reign of Puzur-Inshushinak there was renewed Mesopotamian control of Elam under Third Dynasty of Ur, an empire established by the Sumerian king Ur-Nammu in c. 2112 BC.

Though somewhat tenuous, Sumerian rule in Elam was strong enough for the kings of Ur to engage in diplomacy with other Iranian regions.

Sumerian imperialism was eventually met with Elamite resistance, most notably in the region of Shimashki, from which a new dynasty (though its precise boundaries are not clear) extended its rule into the lands surrounding Susa.

[21] The rulers of the Shimashki dynasty are beyond the king list confirmed by their own inscriptions and by surviving sources from Mesopotamia.

The dynastic shift probably reflects a gradual change in power, perhaps the two dynasties began as a single royal family of co-rulers in different geographical regions.

In Elam, its usage as the term for the region's paramount ruler might derive from the title possibly being used by the vassals or governors in Susa during the rule of the Third Dynasty of Ur.

[40] It is not clear how the Igihalkid dynasty came to an end, but Kidin-Hutran III, who died at some point in the early reign of the Babylonian king Adad-shuma-usur (r. 1216–1187 BC), is generally regarded to have been the last member.

[63] After the defeat of Hutelutush-Inshushinak in 1100 BC, the historical record of Elam is extremely scant for well over three centuries, a period often called the "Elamite Dark Ages".

As a result, the political organization and administration of Elam in the early Neo-Elamite period is more or less completely unknown.

Elam was clearly a consolidated kingdom with strong royal authority by the first half of the 8th century BC, when the country and its rulers once more begin to appear frequently in Mesopotamian texts.

The sequence below follows the Elamite rulers of Susa and is tentative, with approximate regnal dates, due to the small number of surviving sources.

In the mid-2nd century BC, the kingdom of Elymais established control of large parts of ancient Elam, centered in the region of Khuzestan.