history of Iran

The history of Iran is very deep. History of Iran started in the prehistoric period beginning with the earliest evidence of man on the Iranian Plateau and ending roughly at the start of the 1st millennium BCE. Then there is the proto-historic period covering approximately the first half of the 1st millennium BC. The third period is when Iran entered the full light of written history. The civilization of Elam, centered off the plateau in lowland Khuzestan, is an exception, for written history began there as early as it did in neighboring Mesopotamia.