HISTORYAT A GLANCE |
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.
Immigration of the Medes and the Persians
Small groups of nomadic, horse-riding peoples speaking Indo-European
languages began moving into the Iranian cultural area from Central Asia near the
end of the second millennium B.C. Population pressures, overgrazing in their
home area, and hostile neighbors may have prompted these migrations. Some of the
groups settled in eastern Iran, but others, those who were to leave significant
historical records, pushed farther west toward the Zagros Mountains.
Three major groups are identifiable -- the Scythians, the Medes (the Amadai
or Mada), and the Persians (also known as the Parsua or Parsa). The Scythians
established themselves in the northern Zagros Mountains and clung to a
seminomadic existence in which raiding was the chief form of economic
enterprise. The Medes settled over a huge area, reaching as far as modern Tabriz
in the north and Esfahan in the south. They had their capital at Ecbatana
(present-day Hamadan) and annually paid tribute to the Assyrians. The Persians
were established in three areas: to the south of Lake Urmia (the tradional name,
also cited as Lake Orumiyeh, to which it has reverted after being called Lake
Rezaiyeh under the Pahlavis), on the northern border of the kingdom of the
Elamites; and in the environs of modern Shiraz, which would be their eventual
settling place and to which they would give the name Parsa (what is roughly
present-day Fars Province).
During the seventh century B.C., the Persians were led by Hakamanish
(Achaemenes, in Greek), ancestor of the Achaemenid dynasty. A descendant, Cyrus
II (also known as Cyrus the Great or Cyrus the Elder), led the combined forces
of the Medes and the Persians to establish the most extensive empire known in
the ancient world.
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