Dealing with the history of Iran is a challenge for many reasons. Iran is a term with different
meanings through the ages. Today it refers to the boundaries of modern Iran but historically
and culturally it covers a much larger territory. The western term Persia exemplifies these
uncertainties for it is used colloquially as a synonym for Iran but can also refer to the
Achaemenid Arsacid or Sasanian Empires and later empires on the Iranian Plateau. Besides these
geographical ambiguities there is also the ethnic and linguistic dimension of the term Iran.
Iranian languages are a major branch of the Indo-European language family and people using
these languages have played a decisive role in the history of Iran since the first millennium
BCE. How should we situate the 'autochthonous civilizations on the plateau such as those at
Konar Sandal (Jiroft) Sialk in Kashan or for that matter the region of Elam with its longue
durée history and influence? So what does itmean when we talk about Persia and Iran from a
historical point of view? This volume brings together the contributions of the first and second
Payravi conferences on Ancient Iranian History held at the University of California Irvine in
2018 and 2019. The 16 contributions united in this volume tackle various problems of early
Iranian history in many ways. They cover a wide range of time from the Paleolithic to the end
of the Achaemenid empire and Alexander III (the Great) and give vibrant insights into the
dynamic processes of the history of Iran within the framework of the most recent results of
scholarly research.
