evidence: The oldest material culture artifacts found in the region date back to the Neolithic Age (6000 B.C.E. to 4000 B.C.E.). The region was part of the Mannaean civilization, an ancient people of unknown origin, who lived in the territory of present-day Iran, around the tenth to seventh centuries B.C.E. It became part of Urartu, an ancient kingdom of Armenia that existed from around 860 B.C.E. until 585 B.C.E. The name corresponds to the Biblical Mount Ararat. Then it was under the Medes, an ancient Iranian people. It became part of the Satrapy of Armenia under Achaemenid Persia circa 521 B.C.E. After Alexander the Great's death (323 B.C.E.) various Macedonian generals tried to take control of the region but failed. A native dynasty of Orontids flourished until Armenia was conquered by Seleucid Antiochus III the Great, (who ruled from 223 B.C.E. to 187 B.C.E.). The Seleucid Empire was the Hellenistic successor of Alexander the Great's dominion. [...] Nakhichevan became a scene of conflict during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. On May 4, 1992, Armenian forces shelled the area's Sadarak rayon. The heaviest fighting took place on May 18, when the Armenians captured Nakhichevan's exclave of Karki, a tiny territory through which Armenia's main North-South highway passes. Heydar Aliyev declared a unilateral ceasefire on May 23 and sought to conclude a separate peace with Armenia. A cease-fire was agreed upon.