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The history of Iran, commonly known as Persia in the Western world, is intertwined with the history of a larger region, also known as Greater Iran, comprising the area from Anatolia and Egypt in the west to the borders of Ancient India and Syr Darya in the east, and from the Caucasus and the Eurasian Steppe in the north to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman in the south.

The southwestern part of the Iranian plateau participated in the wider Ancient Near East with Elam, from the Early Bronze Age. The Persian Empire (Persia) proper begins in the Iron Age, following the influx of Iranian peoples. Iranian people gave rise to the Medes, the Achaemenids, the Parthians, and the Sasanians during the classical antiquity.

Once a major empire of superpower proportions,[1][2] having conquered far and wide, Iran has endured invasions too, by Greeks, Arabs, Turks, and Mongols. Iran has continually reasserted its national identity throughout the centuries and has developed as a distinct political and cultural entity.

Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 4000 BC.[3] The Medes unified Iran as a nation and empire in 625 BC.[4][4] The Achaemenid Empire (550330 BC), founded by Cyrus the Great, was the first of the Persian empires to rule from the Balkans to North Africa and also Central Asia from their capital in Persis (Persepolis). They were succeeded by the Seleucid Empire, Parthians and Sasanians who governed Iran for almost 1,000 years, and would put Iran once again as the leading powers in the world, only this time amongst their arch rival, the Roman Empire and the successive Byzantine Empire.

The Islamic conquest of Persia (633656) ended the Sasanians and was a turning point in Iranian history. Islamicization in Iran took place during 8th to 10th century and led to the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion in Persia. However, the achievements of the previous Persian civilizations were not lost, but were to a great extent absorbed by the new Islamic polity and civilization.

After centuries of foreign occupation and short-lived native dynasties, Iran was once again reunified as an independent state in 1501 by the Safavid dynasty which established Shi'a Islam[5] as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning points in the history of Islam.[6] Functioning again as a leading power, this time amongst their Ottoman arch rival for centuries, Iran had been a monarchy ruled by a shah, or emperor, almost without interruption from 1501 until the 1979 Iranian revolution, when Iran officially became an Islamic Republic on 1 April 1979.[7][8]

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. Mousterian Stone tools made by Neanderthal man have also been found.[9] There are more cultural remains of Neanderthal man 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, Bisetun, Tamtama, Warwasi, and Yafteh Cave.[10] In 1949 a Neanderthal radius was discovered by CS Coon in Bisitun Cave.[11] Evidence for Upper Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic periods are known mainly from the Zagros region in the caves of Kermanshah and Khoramabad and a few number of sites in the Alborz range and Central Iran.

There are also 10,000-year-old human and animal figurines from Teppe Sarab in Kermanshah Province among the many other ancient artifacts.[9] Early agricultural communities such as Chogha Golan in 10,000 BC[12][13] along with settlements such as Chogha Bonut (the earliest village in Susiana) in 8000 BC,[14][15] began to flourish in and around the Zagros Mountains region in western Iran.[16] Around about the same time the earliest known clay vessels and modeled human and animal terracotta figurines were produced at Ganj Dareh, also in western Iran.[16]

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)[17] and settlements such as Chogha Mish, dating back to 6800 BC;[3][18] there are 7,000-year-old jars of wine excavated in the Zagros Mountains[19] (now on display at the University of Pennsylvania) and ruins of 7,000-year-old settlements such as Sialk are further testament to that. The two main Neolithic Iranian settlements were the Zayandeh River Culture and Ganj Dareh.

Susa is one of the oldest-known settlements of Iran and the world. Based on C14 dating, the time of foundation of the city is as early as 4395 BC,[20] a time that goes beyond the age of civilization in Mesopotamia. The general perception among archeologists is that Susa was an extension of the Sumerian city state of Uruk.[21][22] In its later history, Susa became the capital of Elam, which emerged as a state found 4000 BC.[20] There are also dozens of pre-historic sites across the Iranian plateau pointing to the existence of ancient cultures and urban settlements in the 4th millennium BC,[3] One of the earliest civilizations in Iranian plateau was the Jiroft Civilization in southeastern Iran, in the province of Kerman.

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