Yes - and if you read the History of Persia, you would be surprised how much more of our civilization has roots in Persian civilization.
Indeed. And they had beliefs in things like resurrection, a messiah-like figure, the judgment, a hierarchy of angels and demons, etc. well before there is evidence of these beliefs among the Hebrews. This troubled me as a Christian, until a Catholic teacher of mine pointed out that, while the Jews are God’s chosen people, that does not mean that aspects of the truth did not come through other peoples. God’s truth is Truth and there are hints of it in nearly every culture.