![]() Most notable, the wheel had arrived by 4000 BCE, and a few hundred years later they were being fixed to ox carts. The pace of change quickened, with new inventions appearing. The two thousand years between 6000 BCE and 4000 BCE saw a very large expansion of population in southern Mesopotamia. This comparatively sudden growth of a dense new population in the Middle East must by itself have quickened trade in the region. ![]() Watered by means of irrigation, they turned into highly productive farm land, able to sustain large populations.Īrchaeology traces the growth of these early southern Mesopotamian communities from just after 6000 BCE down to historic times, and witnesses their growth from farming villages into the first true cities in history, two and a half thousand years later. The plains of southern Mesopotamia have wonderfully rich soils, deposited by the rivers Tigris and Euphrates over thousands of years. Returning to the period just after 6000 BCE, then, and to those new communities in the dry and mineral-poor plain of southern Mesopotamia, they were able to survive only by creating irrigation systems and tapping into the already-existing trade routes of the region. Bladed tools of obsidian, a semi-precious stone found in Asia Minor, have been discovered in south western Iran dating from as early as 8000 BCE. These would almost certainly not have been operated by long-distance traders, but rather have grown up through repeated local exchanges. Trade routes gradually developed over long distances. This in turn will have allowed them to survive periods of drought as well as use grain for trade with neighboring peoples. Buildings for communal grain storage are a universal feature of early farming villages, and they will have been able to build up food surpluses. One of the beneficial characteristics of cereal staples such as wheat and barley is that they can be stored for a long time before eating, unlike fruit, berries and meat. The spread of agriculture, however, would have greatly stimulated trade. Hunter-gatherer sites 100 miles inland show stores of shellfish which must have come from the coast. Trade networks can be traced far back into pre-history, before agriculture in fact. This region has no mineral resources to speak of, so the new communities had to import all their stone – for tools, decorations and weapons – from elsewhere. The farming villages faced a further challenge, however. By creating irrigation systems, they were able to feed their crops with water well beyond the brief rainy season. The techniques learnt here enabled farmers to settle in the dry southern Mesopotamian plains. In this way they were able to water their fields over a long period of time, increasing their yield of crops. Communities of farmers dug tanks and reservoirs to store water, and ditches to lead it to the fields throughout the growing season. ![]() In about 6000 BCE, irrigation began to be practiced in the foothills of the Zagros mountains, very near southern Mesopotamia. This low-lying plain was too dry to allow farming there simply was not enough rain, apart from during a very brief period in the spring, to grow crops. One region where farming was not yet present, however, was southern Mesopotamia. The farming population in the Middle East was distributed across the “Fertile Crescent”, that huge stretch of territory from Egypt in the west to Iran in the east were farming is easy and productive. It had a population of some 2,500 people. Large water tanks were probably used for irrigation, and a massive stone tower for defense. Jericho, situated in a large oasis, consisted of 8 to10 acres of mud-brick homes surrounded by substantial walls. Most of these were small villages, but some, like Jericho, were sizable towns. This was a pivotal event for mankind – but why here? And why now? The Rise of Farming in Mesopotamiaīy 6000 BCE, farming settlements dotted the Middle Eastern landscape from Egypt to Iran. This emerged in the mid-4th millennium BCE, with the appearance of the first cities on the Mesopotamian flood plain. ![]() The first civilization in human history was that of the Sumerians. ![]()
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