Medes
Sign in to savethumb|upright|Artistic representation of a Median man
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The Medes were an ancient Iranian people who established a powerful empire in what is now Iran during the 7th and 6th centuries BCE. They are historically significant as one of the major powers of the ancient Near East and played important roles in regional conflicts before their empire was absorbed by the Persians.
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Article
22 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Archaeology
- History
- Origins
- Assyrian intervention in Median territories
- Rise and fall
- Median dynasty
- Later history
- Culture and society
- Society
- Religion
- Language
- Art and architecture
- Economy
- Mythology
- Kurds and Medes
- See also
- Notes
- Citations
- Bibliography
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|upright|Artistic representation of a Median man
The Medes were an Iron Age Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media between western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, they occupied the mountainous region of northwestern Iran and the northeastern and eastern region of Mesopotamia in the vicinity of Ecbatana (present-day Hamadan). Their consolidation in Iran is believed to have occurred during the 8th century BC. In the 7th century BC, all of western Iran and some other territories were under Median rule, but their precise geographic extent remains unknown.