The Art of Elam?ca. 4200-525 BC?offers a view of, and a critical reflection on, the art history of one of the world’s first and least-known civilizations,?illuminating a significant chapter of our human past. Not unlike a gallery of historical paintings, this comprehensive treatment of the rich heritage of ancient Iran?showcases a visual trail of the evolution of human society, with all its leaps and turns, from?its origins in the earliest villages of southwest Iran at around 4200 BC to the rise of the Achaemenid Persian empire in ca. 525 BC.