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Iran's cultural history dates back to around 6000 BC. Clay figurines from this era have been found in various places on the Iranian plateau and the Louvre in Paris has a good collection. A lot of what we know about the people inhabiting the land comes from Mesopotamian cuneiform texts. Mesopotamia was certainly the center of civilization up to 600 BC. Rich agriculturally but lacking in other resources.
According to Mesopotamian texts, the Eastern part of their land-Elam- was occupied by a people called the Elamites. Indigenous to the country, and speaking an agglutinative non-Semitic language still not well understood to this day. Khuzestan was the center of their loosely organized federation of states which stretched north into Lurestan, south to Fars, and as far as Bushehr on the Gulf. Important Elamite Cities such as Awan or Simash are still to be located. Other important Elamite sites however have been excavated such as Choga Zanbil, Haft Tape and Susa on the Khuzestan plain; and Tape Malyan (Anshan) on the Marv Dasht plain near Persepolis in Fars.
Susa was always the pride and joy of the Elamites and later the Persians, a city that stood for 5000 years until totally sacked and raised to the ground by the Mongols in the 13th C AD, maybe a reason why we have to refer to Mesopotamian texts for the history of Elam.
The Elamites' mountainous land gave them wood, marble, alabaster, lapis lazuli, metal ores, precious stones all of which were sought by the Mesopotamians who were rich agriculturally but short on raw materials. Susa soon became a trading center with routes stretching as far as Sistan, Balouchestan, Afghanistan and India.
The love hate relationship that existed between the Elamites and their Mesopotamian neighbors-the Assyrians heightened c. 647 BC when Elam then a mighty kingdom fell to Ashurbanipal. Who recorded his devastation of Susa as an act of avenge for the humiliations the Elamites had inflicted on the Mesopotamians over the centuries. "I devastated the land of Elam and on their lands I sowed salt" he said.
Upon the death of the ruthless Ashurbanipal his own royal cities were being sacked by the enemies he had created amongst them the powers now developing in Iran namely the Medes and the Persians. Iran which basically means the land of the Aryans was since 1000 BC being inhabited by Indo-Europeans who had begun migrating entering the plateau from beyond the Caucasus via routes around the Caspian Sea. Those settled in the northern and central areas were called the Medes and those settled in the Fars area were called the Persians. These Indo-European newcomers were soon involved in the conflicts between the Elemites, Babylonians, and Assyrian empires. The Medes were victorious from these conflicts when they defeated the Assyrians in 612 BC destroying Nineveh. In 550 BC Cyrus, challenged the Median Astyages-his wife's grandfather-and captured the Median Capital Ekbatana ( Hamadan ). Cyrus then made peace with the Medians and consolidated a Persian/ Median Empire by utilizing Median and Persian administrators (satraps). Having consolidated his eastern fronts, he then set to take Babylon, which fell to his hands without a shot being fired. In contrast to Ashurbanipal's salt sowing statements, this is what Cyrus had to say when he conquered Babylon:
I did not allow any to terrorize the land of Sumer and Akkad. I kept in view the needs of Babylon and all its sanctuaries to promote their well being. The citizens of Babylon... I lifted their unbecoming yoke. Their dilapidated dwellings I restored. I put an end to their misfortunes....".
This he inscribed in cuneiform on a clay cylinder which was discovered in 1879 and is now know as his declaration of the "Rights of Nations", now kept at the British Museum, London.
Within little more than a Century after Ashurbanipal's salt sowing, Susa became the glowing city described in the Bible with monumental buildings furnished with " marble pillars, couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother of pearl, and precious stones". Darius I the successor to Cyrus the Great rebuilt Susa around 518 BC and took care to record that he had adorned the city with gold from Sardis and Bactria, ivory from Egypt and Ethiopia, cider wood from Lebanon- the tribute that came to him from controlling two million square miles of territory stretching from Egypt and the Aegean sea well into India, and from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian and Black Seas. Herodote estimated the annual contributions and tributes to be worth a million pounds of silver in those days. The Achaemenians like Cyrus and Darius were statesmen of vision introducing road constructions, codifying laws and law enforcement, tax assessment, weights and measures standards, and decentralization of local governments.
However, Cyrus's ideals as described in Cyropaedia by Xenophon slowly being debased by successive monarchs who became entangled in the intrigues of courtiers, the lure of luxury and power. Darius III the last Achaemenid king was defeated, in a series of battles starting at 333 BC at Issus, by Alexander who died shortly after in 323 BC. The Seleucids took control of the Achaemenid territory for about 100 years. At around 220 BC the Parthian Arsaces declared Parthia's independence. Parthia was to the south-west of the Caspian Sea.
The Parthians ruled over the plateau for around 400 years. They were militarily formidable and challenged the Romans on numerous occasions for the control of the Near-East. They encouraged trade and established the silk route to china which became a good source of income. Frequent wars against intruding Armenians and Scythians weakened their grip until challenged by a Persian princedom in Fars. Ardeshir I challenged and defeated the Parthian king Artabanus V in AD 224 beginning a new dynasty known as "Sassanian".
The Sassanians considered themselves as heirs of the Achaemenids and revived old values and practices, in particular supremacy in world affairs. Ardeshir I initiated and Shahpour I consolidated a vast empire stretching from the Indian Punjab to the east of Capadocia in Anatolia.
Bahram II is reputed to have seized the Throne by political intrigues, led by the chief priest Kerdir and the nobles. Court intrigues and a series of military defeats weakened the sassanian position. It was Khosrow I ( Anoushirvan ) and also Khosrow II who revitalized the Empire. Khosrow II came close to achieving the Sassanian dream of restoring the Achaemenid boundaries when Jerusalem fell to him and constantinople was under his siege. The two Khosrows are well celebrated as great heroes in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh. Khosrow I was renowned for his military and diplomatic skills and is reputed as the "Just" Anoushirvan Adel. During his time the game of chess had been brought to his court from India, and his chief minister Buzarjomehr is reputed to have invented backgammon. The splendour of Khosrow's palace at Cetesiphon ( Tag-i Kasra ) is legendary.
Khosrow II or Khosrow Parviz as he is known had over extended his army and over taxed the people to the point that, when the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (610-41) AD in a tactical move abandoned his besieged capital and sailed up the Black Sea to attack Iran from the rear, there was no resistance. Heraclius then marched through Mesopotamia and western Iran sacking Takht-i Sulayman and the Palace of Dastgerd. The Sassanians never recovered. Internal dissension and a long brutal conflict with the Byzantine, left Sassanian Persia pray for the Arabs. In 636 AD the Arabs swept into the Euphrates basin, in a three day battle at Al-Qadissiyeh in present day Iraq, they defeated Yazdgerd III's army and captured Ctesiphon.
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