ABSTRACT
The early history of the western Iranians (Medes and Persians) is a thorny problem. According to the now most generally accepted hypothesis, Iranian-speaking groups had moved into western Iran from the east by the end of the second millennium BC (Young 1967); here they mingled with the local populations of the Zagros and Fars. The Iranians of the Zagros region emerged in the late seventh century as a powerful and prominent group, known as the Medes. They were involved in the fall of Assyria (2, no.10) in the years around 610, and were themselves defeated by the Persian king, Cyrus II, a few decades later (550; see 3, no.1). The Medes have traditionally been perceived as the imperial ancestors of the Persians. Certainly, they were linked to them linguistically, as well as being closely associated with the Persians in Greek and biblical literature. They are also the earliest Iranian people to figure in contemporary Mesopotamian texts, as their territory abutted on the powerful Assyrian empire (for an introduction to the Neo-Assyrian empire, see Kuhrt 1995a, ch.9).
