History of Human Knowledge of Oil and Tar Derived from Excavation Findings and Old Iranian and Greek Writings

Historical evidence shows that in the past four thousand years the Iranians have been acquainted with oil and tar and have used them in their every day life. They knew the location of the oil reservoirs as well. Statues and stamps, made from tar, belonging to 1600 B.C., discovered in Khoozestan and presently kept in archaeological museum in Tehran; references in Greek and Roman literature to oil and its use; description of the oil reservoirs and their location by Arab historians and references to oil and tar in Persian poetry, support this claim. References in Persian literature and poetry show that Iranians knew the art of refining and refined oil for the first time at about 1000 years ago.