Editing History of Iran (section)

==Prehistory==
{{Further|List of archaeological sites in Iran|Prehistory of Iran}}
{{Further|Tepe Sialk|Jiroft culture|Shahr-e Sukhteh}}

===Paleolithic===
The earliest archaeological artifacts in Iran were found in the [[Kashafrud]] and [[Ganj Par]] sites that are thought to date back to 100,000 years ago in the Middle Paleolithic.<ref>Ancient Iran, ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', www.britannica.com</ref> [[Mousterian]] stone tools made by [[Neanderthal]]s have also been found.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Biglari|first1=Fereidoun|last2=Shidrang|first2=Sonia|date=2019|title=Rescuing the Paleolithic Heritage of Hawraman, Kurdistan, Iranian Zagros|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/706536|journal=Near Eastern Archaeology|volume=82|issue=4|pages=226–235|doi=10.1086/706536|s2cid=212851965 |issn=1094-2076}}</ref> There are more cultural remains of Neanderthals dating back to the [[Middle Paleolithic]] period, which mainly have been found in the Zagros region and fewer in central Iran at sites such as Kobeh, Kunji, [[Bisitun Cave]], Tamtama, [[Warwasi]], and [[Yafteh]] Cave.<ref>J.D. Vigne, J. Peters and D. Helmer, ''First Steps of Animal Domestication'', Proceedings of the 9th Conference of the International Council of Archaeozoology, Durham, August 2002, {{ISBN|1-84217-121-6}}</ref> In 1949, a Neanderthal [[Radius (bone)|radius]] was discovered by [[Carleton S. Coon]] in Bisitun Cave.<ref>{{cite web|last1=TRINKAUS|first1=E.|last2=BIGLARI|first2=F.|title=Middle Paleolithic Human Remains from Bisitun Cave, Iran|url=http://www.academia.edu|access-date=2021-11-06|archive-date=2016-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160727234409/http://kau.academia.edu/DaniyalAlGhazzawi|url-status=live}}</ref> Evidence for [[Upper Paleolithic]] and [[Epipaleolithic]] periods are known mainly from the [[Zagros Mountains]] in the caves of [[Kermanshah]] and [[Khorramabad]] and a few number of sites in [[Piranshahr]], [[Alborz]] and [[Central Iran]]. During this time, people began creating [[rock art in Iran|rock art]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/503588/UNESCO-assessor-visits-prehistoric-caves-in-Khorramabad-s-valley | title=UNESCO assessor visits prehistoric caves in Khorramabad's valley | date=13 September 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://newspaper.irandaily.ir/7490/3/7192 | title=Khorramabad Valley: A potential UNESCO World Heritage Site }}</ref>

===Neolithic to Chalcolithic===
Early agricultural communities such as [[Chogha Golan]] in 10,000 BC<ref>{{cite web|title=Early humans in Iran were growing wheat 12,000 years ago|url=http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/early-humans-iran-were-growing-wheat-12-000-years-ago-f6C10536898|date=5 July 2013|work=NBC.news|access-date=10 September 2014|archive-date=2 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201102183951/https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/early-humans-iran-were-growing-wheat-12-000-years-ago-f6C10536898|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Riehl|first1=Simone|title=Emergence of Agriculture in the Foothills of the Zagros Mountains of Iran (Supplement)|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259041065|website=www.researchgate.net|access-date=1 March 2015|archive-date=3 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190503134900/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259041065_Emergence_of_Agriculture_in_the_Foothills_of_the_Zagros_Mountains_of_Iran_Supplement|url-status=live}}</ref> along with settlements such as [[Chogha Bonut]] (the earliest village in Elam) in 8000 BC,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/nn/spr97_alizadeh.html |title=Excavations at Chogha Bonut: The earliest village in Susiana |publisher=University of Chicago
|access-date=21 June 2013 |archive-date=25 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130725195537/http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/nn/spr97_alizadeh.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last =Hole|first =Frank|title =Neolithic Age in Iran|encyclopedia =Encyclopedia Iranica|publisher =Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation|date =20 July 2004|url =http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/neolithic-age-in-iran|access-date =9 August 2012|archive-date =23 October 2012|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20121023055952/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/neolithic-age-in-iran|url-status =live}}</ref> began to flourish in and around the Zagros Mountains region in western Iran.<ref name=MMA>{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/02/wai/ht02wai.htm |title=Iran, 8000–2000 BC |access-date=2008-08-09 |work=The Timeline of Art History |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |date=October 2000 |archive-date=2001-03-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010305194154/http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/02/wai/ht02wai.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Around about the same time, the earliest-known clay vessels and modelled human and animal terracotta figurines were produced at Ganj Dareh, also in western Iran.<ref name=MMA/> There are also 10,000-year-old human and animal figurines from Tepe Sarab in Kermanshah Province among many other ancient artefacts.<ref>{{cite web
| url=http://www.pbase.com/k_amj/tehran_museum |url-status= live
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130726032154/http://www.pbase.com/k_amj/tehran_museum |archive-date=2013-07-26
|others= Ali Majdfar, photography
| access-date= 27 March 2008
| title= Ancient Iran Museum
}}</ref>

The south-western part of Iran was part of the [[Fertile Crescent]] where most of humanity's first major crops were grown, in villages such as [[Susa]] (where a settlement was first founded possibly as early as 4395 cal BC)<ref name="Elam">{{cite book
|title=The Archaeology of Elam: Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State
|first= D. T. | last=Potts
| publisher=Cambridge University Press
| year= 1999
| isbn =0-521-56358-5}}</ref>{{rp|46–47}} and settlements such as [[Chogha Mish]], dating back to 6800 BC;<ref name="xinhuaciv">[http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-08/10/content_6508609.htm Xinhua, "New evidence: modern civilization began in Iran", 10 Aug 2007] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161123142419/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-08/10/content_6508609.htm |date=23 November 2016 }}, retrieved 1 October 2007</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Chogha Mish (Iran)|author=K. Kris Hirst|url=http://archaeology.about.com/od/cterms/g/choghamish.htm|access-date=2010-06-11|archive-date=2013-11-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106002737/http://archaeology.about.com/od/cterms/g/choghamish.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> there are 7,000-year-old jars of wine [[Excavation (archaeology)|excavated]] in the Zagros Mountains<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/research/Exp_Rese_Disc/NearEast/wine.shtml |title=Penn Museum – University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216011240/http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/research/Exp_Rese_Disc/NearEast/wine.shtml |archive-date=2008-12-16 }}</ref> (now on display at the [[University of Pennsylvania]]) and ruins of 7000-year-old settlements such as [[Tepe Sialk]] are further testament to that. The two main Neolithic Iranian settlements were [[Ganj Dareh]] and the hypothetical [[Zayandeh River Culture]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Philip E. L. |date=1990 |title=Architectural Innovation and Experimentation at Ganj Dareh, Iran |journal=World Archaeology |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=323–335 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1990.9980111 |jstor=124833 |issn=0043-8243}}</ref>

===Bronze Age===
{{further|Tepe Sialk|Jiroft culture|Elam|Kura–Araxes culture|Akkadian Empire|Kassites|Mannaea}}
[[File:Cylinder with a ritual scene ,early 2nd millennium B.C. Geoy Tepe Iran.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Cylinder with a ritual scene, early 2nd millennium BC, [[Geoy Tepe]], Iran]]
[[File:Choqa Zanbil Darafsh 1 (36).JPG|thumb|[[Chogha Zanbil]] is one of the few extant [[ziggurat]]s outside of [[Mesopotamia]] and is considered to be the best preserved example in the world.]]
Parts of what is modern-day northwestern Iran was part of the [[Kura–Araxes culture]] (circa 3400 BC—ca. 2000 BC), that stretched up into the neighbouring regions of the [[Caucasus]] and [[Anatolia]].<ref name="books.google.nl2">{{cite book|last=Kushnareva|first=K. Kh.|title=The Southern Caucasus in Prehistory: Stages of Cultural and Socioeconomic Development from the Eighth to the Second Millennium B.C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e1PNO7urjHQC&pg=PA44|year=1997|publisher=UPenn Museum of Archaeology|isbn=978-0-924171-50-5|access-date=2016-05-08|archive-date=2020-09-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200913110041/https://books.google.com/books?id=e1PNO7urjHQC&pg=PA44|url-status=live}}, page 44</ref><ref name="Ancient Turkey">{{cite book|last1=Sagona|first1=Antonio|last2=Zimansky|first2=Paul|title=Ancient Turkey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SsLKBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA163|date=24 February 2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-44027-6|access-date=8 May 2016|archive-date=6 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200906034914/https://books.google.com/books?id=SsLKBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA163|url-status=live}}, page 163</ref>


[[Susa]] is one of the oldest-known settlements of Iran and the world. Based on C14 dating, the time of the foundation of the city is as early as 4395 BC,<ref name="Elam" />{{rp|45–46}} a time right after the establishment of the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk in 4500 BC. The general perception among archaeologists is that Susa was an extension of the [[Sumer]]ian city-state of [[Uruk]], hence incorporating many aspects of Mesopotamian culture.<ref>Algaze, Guillermo. 2005. The Uruk World System: The Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization</ref><ref>{{Cite book
| title= Beyond the Ubaid: transformation and integration in the late prehistoric societies of the Middle East
| editor1 = Robert A. Carter
| editor2 = Graham Philip
| series= Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization
| volume= 63
| orig-date= 2006
| year=2010
| isbn =  978-1-885923-66-0
| place = Ann Arbor
| publisher= University of Chicago Press 
 |url=http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/saoc63.pdf |archive-date=2014-03-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140321143949/http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/saoc63.pdf |url-status=live 
}}</ref> In its later history, Susa became the capital of Elam, which emerged as a state founded 4000 BC.<ref name="Elam" />{{rp|45–46}} There are also dozens of [[prehistory|prehistoric]] sites across the Iranian plateau pointing to the existence of ancient cultures and urban settlements in the fourth millennium BC.<ref name="xinhuaciv" /> One of the earliest civilizations on the Iranian plateau was the [[Jiroft culture]] in southeastern Iran in the province of [[Kerman]].

It is one of the most artefact-rich archaeological sites in the Middle East. Archaeological excavations in Jiroft led to the discovery of several objects belonging to the 4th millennium BC.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chnpress.com/news/?section=2&id=6864 |title=5000-Y-Old Inscribed Tablets Discovered in Jiroft  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511111851/http://www.chnpress.com/news/?section=2&id=6864 |archive-date=2011-05-11 }}</ref> There is a large quantity of objects decorated with highly distinctive engravings of animals, mythological figures, and architectural motifs. The objects and their iconography are considered unique. Many are made from [[chlorite group|chlorite]], a grey-green soft stone; others are in [[copper]], [[bronze]], [[terracotta]], and even [[lapis lazuli]]. Recent excavations at the sites have produced the world's earliest inscription which pre-dates Mesopotamian inscriptions.<ref>{{Cite news|title=New Discoveries in Jiroft May Change History of Civilization
| publisher= Cultural Heritage News Agency
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080411035252/http://www.chnpress.com/news/?section=2&id=6126
| date = 26 January 2006
| archive-date= 11 April 2008
|url=https://www.chnpress.com/news|access-date=2023-03-16}}</ref><ref name="IRANIAN HISTORY">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Yarshater |first=Yarshater |title=Iranian history |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |access-date=2008-06-23 |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/iran-ii1-pre-islamic-times |archive-date=2021-02-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203041803/https://iranicaonline.org/articles/iran-ii1-pre-islamic-times |url-status=live }}</ref>

There are records of numerous other ancient civilizations on the [[Iranian plateau]] before the emergence of [[Iranian peoples]] during the [[Early Iron Age]]. The [[Early Bronze Age]] saw the rise of urbanization into organized city-states and the invention of writing (the [[Uruk period]]) in the Near East. While Bronze Age [[Elam]] made use of writing from an early time, the [[Proto-Elamite#Proto-Elamite script|Proto-Elamite script]] remains undeciphered, and records from [[Sumer]] pertaining to Elam are scarce.

Russian historian [[Igor M. Diakonoff]] stated that the modern inhabitants of Iran are descendants of mainly non-Indo-European groups, more specifically of pre-Iranic inhabitants of the Iranian Plateau: "It is the autochthones of the Iranian plateau, and not the Proto-Indo-European tribes of Europe, which are, in the main, the ancestors, in the physical sense of the word, of the present-day Iranians."<ref>Diakonoff, I., M., "Media", Cambridge History of Iran, II, Cambridge, 1985, p.43 [within the pp.36–148]. [http://www.federatio.org/joes/EurasianStudies_0309.pdf This paper is cited in the Journal of Eurasian Studies on page 51.]</ref>

===Early Iron Age===
{{see also|Neo-Assyrian Empire|Urartu}}
[[File:Gold Rhyton in the form of a Ram's Head - Reza Abbasi Museum - Tehran, Iran.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Rhyton]] in the shape of a ram's head, gold – [[Saqqez]] - [[Iranian Kurdistan|Kurdistan]] - western Iran <ref>{{cite web | url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/ziwiye | title=Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica }}</ref> –, late 7th–early 6th century BCE]] 
[[File:Marlik cup iran.jpg|thumb|A gold cup at the [[National Museum of Iran]], from the first half of the 1st millennium BC]]
Records become more tangible with the rise of the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] and its records of incursions from the Iranian plateau.
As early as the 20th century BC, tribes came to the Iranian plateau from the [[Pontic–Caspian steppe]]. The arrival of Iranians on the Iranian plateau forced the [[Elam]]ites to relinquish one area of their empire after another and to take refuge in Elam, [[History of Khuzestan Province|Khuzestan]] and the nearby area, which only then became coterminous with Elam.<ref name="EI-Elam">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Lackenbacher|first=Sylvie|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica|title=Elam|access-date=2008-06-23|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/elam-vii|archive-date=2020-11-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201118145532/https://iranicaonline.org/articles/elam-vii|url-status=live}}</ref> Bahman Firuzmandi say that the southern Iranians might be intermixed with the Elamite peoples living in the plateau.<ref>^ Bahman Firuzmandi "Mad, Hakhamanishi, Ashkani, Sasani" pp. 20</ref>
By the mid-first millennium BC, [[Medes]], [[Persian people|Persians]], and [[Parthia]]ns populated the Iranian plateau. Until the rise of the Medes, they all remained under [[Assyria]]n domination, like the rest of the [[Near East]]. In the first half of the first millennium BC, parts of what is now [[Azerbaijan (Iran)|Iranian Azerbaijan]] were incorporated into [[Urartu]].