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Iran
Ancient Iran
Pre-Achaemenid Iran
Iran's history as a nation of people speaking an Indo-European
language did not begin until the middle of the second millennium
B.C. Before then, Iran was occupied by peoples with a variety
of cultures. There are numerous artifacts attesting to settled
agriculture, permanent sun-dried- brick dwellings, and pottery-making
from the sixth millennium B.C. The most advanced area technologically
was ancient Susiana, present-day Khuzestan Province . By the fourth
millennium, the inhabitants of Susiana, the Elamites, were using
semipictographic writing, probably learned from the highly advanced
civilization of Sumer in Mesopotamia (ancient name for much of
the area now known as Iraq), to the west.
Sumerian influence in art, literature, and religion also became
particularly strong when the Elamites were occupied by, or at
least came under the domination of, two Mesopotamian cultures,
those of Akkad and Ur, during the middle of the third millennium.
By 2000 B.C. the Elamites had become sufficiently unified to destroy
the city of Ur. Elamite civilization developed rapidly from that
point, and, by the fourteenth century B.C., its art was at its
most impressive.
Data as of December 1987
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