Prehistoric art in Iran

The goal of art’s history constitutes art recognition and assessment of any era and locus that it has originated from. Art and history aboard each other in culture arena as follows. Each artwork is an inexhaustible occurrence; this imprint can belong to any era, it remains up to long spans after its era and continues its life. An artwork is contemporarily considered an object and a historical event.
The antiquity of civilization and culture in the Iranian plateau territory goes back to several thousand years before the entry of Aryans. Probably from the beginning of the first millennium BCE they had settled in Iranian plateau and laid their name on it. The term Iran is derived from the ancient phase of Ariana i.e. the land of Aryans. Thus, the Iran’s art history comprises of varying inscriptions from the prehistoric periods till recent centuries in the framework of this vast land. Iranian art encompasses persistent features that make it distinguished and specified from the other fine arts of the globe. Investigation and diagnosis of the deepest root of Iranian art are based on the findings of archaeologists that are not completely conceivable.
The dwellers of the Iranian plateau lived from the Palaeolithic era to the Neolithic era in the environment highlands on this plateau and have left a culture impression, later when the valleys began to dry, they migrated to caves. During the caverns that took place in the Kermanshah region and Bisetun inscriptions, the tools along with the remnants of human bones were discovered in the layers of the cave. During the cave-dwelling era, the man of Bisetun turned more précised in the workmanship of tools and instruments. These utilities are comparable to those that were made in Syria and Northern Iraq.
The images stained on rocks in the Lorestan caves is considered as the oldest discovered inscription on the Iranian plateau; the theme of these images is of animals along with the humans that is impregnated with yellow, black and red colors. The antiquity of these inscriptions is estimated to be around fifteen thousand years BCE, which is approximately concurrent with Lasco (Lascaux) cave images in France.
The owners of these inscriptions via the communal hunting, fishing and collection of plants root and leaves acquired their food.
For an artist the prehistoric subjects of interest were generally the drawings of his dwelling animals that in addition to ornamental aspect, was an intonation for fears, hopes and is accounted as a symptom to seek help from the nature powers in permanent life struggle.
From the Palaeolithic era of Najd in Iran, two caving excavations were created in the Pey Deh strait (Bakhtiari Mountains in the northeast of Shushtar) and tools and armaments from the uneven stone (stony hammer, spear and blade of stony axe) were obtained.
The Neolithic era in Iran initiates from the mid-7th millennium BCE and the persisted inscriptions of it are mainly the tools from the varnished stone.
Agriculture and domesticating animals in Iran probably started around the 4th millennium BCE. About this ancient era, the existing findings and evidences seem insufficient.
In the incipient centenary of 4th millennium BCE, the pragmatic ornamentation was replaced by simple and irregular configurations on the crockery. The human with the assistance of better tools produced red colored cups and images of animals were infracted on them. In fine, in the 4th millennium before the Christian era the vessels form turned more complex.
With the help of the wheel, the better and more delicate crockery was made and the earthenware due to the construction of furnaces, gained varied colors. Tendency towards minimalism, modelling of one of the peculiarities and synthetism increased.
In the late 4th millennium BCE a race named Elamites, the civilization of Elam in the south-western Iran, included Khuzestan and a part of current Fars and even a southern part of the lowlands of the Tigris and Euphrates were founded and their capital was Susa city.
The pea colored crockery revealed in the searches of Susa that are popular for their beauty and precision are emblematic of an advanced pottery industry of that order. Elamites primarily used imaginary lines and later a type of cuneiform and perpetually had an interrelationship with Sumerians and Babylonians. It seems that civilization of Elamites from the language viewpoint and other cultural aspects had independent peculiarities.
Chogha Zanbil ziggurats nestled in the vicinity of Susa are similar to tower like shrines of Mesopotamia. The bas-relief, metalworking and engraved enamelled bricks were common in Elam. Even Elamites were advanced in weaving and crocheting.
From the same mid-5th millennium BCE in the central and north-eastern parts of Iran, the civilizations such as Tappeh Sialk (Kashan) and Tappeh Hesar (Damghan) were formed.