Editing History of Iran (section)

===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>