Pre-Iranian era
The earliest archaeological artifacts in Iran, like those excavated at the Kashafrud and Ganj Par sites, attest to a human presence in Iran since the Lower Paleolithic era. Neanderthal artefacts dating back to the Middle Paleolithic period have been found mainly in the Zagros region at sites such as Warwasi and Yafteh Cave. Early agricultural communities began to flourish in Iran at around 8000 BC, with settlements such as Chogha Bonut, Susa and Chogha Mish developing in the Zagros region.
Dozens of pre-historic sites across the Iranian plateau point to the existence of ancient cultures and urban settlements in the fourth millennium BC, centuries before the earliest civilizations arose in nearby Mesopotamia. During the Bronze age Iran was home to several civilisations such as Elam, Jiroft and Zayandeh Rud civilisations. Elam, the most prominent of these civilisations developed in the southwest of Iran alongside those in mesopotamia. The development of writing in Elam in 2900 BC paralleled that in Sumer. The Elamite kingdom continued its existence until the emergence of the Median and Achaemenid Empires.
Pre-Islamic statehood
During the second millenium BC proto-Iranian tribes arrived in Iran from southern Russia, rivaling the native settlers of the country. As these tribes dispersed into the wider area of Greater Iran and beyond, the boundaries of modern Iran were dominated by the Persian, Parthian and Median tribes. Soon after Zoroastrianism emerged as the main religion of the Iranian tribes.
The unification of the Median tribes under a single ruler in 728 BC led to the creation of a Median empire which by 612 BC controlled the whole of Iran as well as eastern Anatolia. A Persian revolt led by Cyrus the Great ended the Median empire in 550 BC and signaled the beginning of the Achaemenid empire. Later conquests under Cyrus and his successors expanded the empire to include Lydia, Babylon, Egypt and the
