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Background: In the narrow sense,
Mesopotamia is the area between the
Euphrates and Tigris rivers, north or
northwest of the bottleneck at
Baghdad, in modern Iraq; it is
Al-Jazirah ("The Island") of the Arabs.
South of this lies Babylonia, named
after the city of Babylon. However, in
the broader sense, the name
Mesopotamia has come to be used for
the area bounded on the northeast by
the Zagros Mountains and on the
southwest by the edge of the Arabian
Plateau and stretching from the
Persian Gulf in the southeast to the
spurs of the Anti-Taurus Mountains in
the northwest.
Mesopotamia is the area between the
Euphrates and Tigris rivers, north or
northwest of the bottleneck at
Baghdad, in modern Iraq; it is
Al-Jazirah ("The Island") of the Arabs.
South of this lies Babylonia, named
after the city of Babylon. However, in
the broader sense, the name
Mesopotamia has come to be used for
the area bounded on the northeast by
the Zagros Mountains and on the
southwest by the edge of the Arabian
Plateau and stretching from the
Persian Gulf in the southeast to the
spurs of the Anti-Taurus Mountains in
the northwest.
Only from the latitude of Baghdad do the Euphrates and Tigris truly
become twin rivers, the Rafidain of the Arabs, which have constantly
changed their courses over the millennia. The low-lying plain of the
Karun River in Persia has always been closely related to Mesopotamia,
but it is NOT considered part of Mesopotamia as it forms its own river
system.
Mesopotamia, south of Ar-Ramadi (about 70 miles, or 110 kilometres,
west of Baghdad) on the Euphrates and the bend of the Tigris below
Samarra' (about 70 miles north-northwest of Baghdad), is flat alluvial
land. Between Baghdad and the mouth of the Shatt al-'Arab (the
confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, where it empties into the
Persian Gulf) there is a difference in height of only about 100 feet (30
metres). As a result of the slow flow of the water, there are heavy
deposits of silt, and the riverbeds are raised. Consequently, the rivers
often overflow their banks (and may even change their course) when
they are not protected by high dikes. In recent times they have been
regulated above Baghdad by the use of escape channels with
overflow reservoirs. The extreme south is a region of extensive
marshes and reed swamps, Hawrs, which, probably since early times,
have served as an area of refuge for oppressed and displaced peoples.
The supply of water is not regular; as a result of the high average
temperatures and a very low annual rainfall, the ground of the plain of
latitude 35 N is hard and dry and unsuitable for plant cultivation for at
least eight months in the year. Consequently, agriculture without risk
of crop failure, which seems to have begun in the higher rainfall zones
and in the hilly borders of Mesopotamia in the 10th millennium BC,
began in Mesopotamia itself, the real heart of the civilization, only
after artificial irrigation had been invented, bringing water to large
stretches of territory through a widely branching network of canals.
Since the ground is extremely fertile and, with irrigation and the
necessary drainage, will produce in abundance, southern
Mesopotamia became a land of plenty that could support a
considerable population. The cultural superiority of north
Mesopotamia, which may have lasted until about 4000 BC, was finally
overtaken by the south when the people there had responded to the
challenge of their situation.
The present climatic conditions are fairly similar to those of 8,000 years
ago. An English survey of ruined settlements in the area 30 miles
around ancient Hatra (180 miles northwest of Baghdad) has shown
that the southern limits of the zone in which agriculture is possible
without artificial irrigation has remained unchanged since the first
settlement of Al-Jazirah.
The availability of raw materials is a historical factor of great
importance, as is the dependence on those materials that had to be
imported. In Mesopotamia, agricultural products and those from stock
breeding, fisheries, date palm cultivation, and reed industries [in short,
grain, vegetables, meat, leather, wool, horn, fish, dates, and reed and
plant-fibre products] were available in plenty and could easily be
produced in excess of home requirements to be exported. There are
bitumen springs at Hit (90 miles northwest of Baghdad) on the
Euphrates (the Is of Herodotus). On the other hand, wood, stone, and
metal were rare or even entirely absent. The date palm--virtually the
national tree of Iraq--yields a wood suitable only for rough beams and
not for finer work. Stone is mostly lacking in southern Mesopotamia,
although limestone is quarried in the desert about 35 miles to the
west and "Mosul marble" is found not far from the Tigris in its middle
reaches. Metal can only be obtained in the mountains, and the same is
true of precious and semiprecious stones. Consequently, southern
Mesopotamia in particular was destined to be a land of trade from the
start.
Only rarely could "empires" extending over a wider area guarantee
themselves imports by plundering or by subjecting neighbouring
regions. The raw material that epitomizes Mesopotamian civilization is
clay: in the almost exclusively mud-brick architecture and in the
number and variety of clay figurines and pottery artifacts,
Mesopotamia bears the stamp of clay as does no other civilization, and
nowhere in the world but in Mesopotamia and the regions over which
its influence was diffused was clay used as the vehicle for writing.
Such phrases as cuneiform civilization, cuneiform literature, and
cuneiform law can apply only where people had had the idea of using
soft clay not only for bricks and jars and for the jar stoppers on which
a seal could be impressed as a mark of ownership but also as the
vehicle for impressed signs to which established meanings were
assigned--an intellectual achievement that amounted to nothing less
than the invention of writing.
become twin rivers, the Rafidain of the Arabs, which have constantly
changed their courses over the millennia. The low-lying plain of the
Karun River in Persia has always been closely related to Mesopotamia,
but it is NOT considered part of Mesopotamia as it forms its own river
system.
Mesopotamia, south of Ar-Ramadi (about 70 miles, or 110 kilometres,
west of Baghdad) on the Euphrates and the bend of the Tigris below
Samarra' (about 70 miles north-northwest of Baghdad), is flat alluvial
land. Between Baghdad and the mouth of the Shatt al-'Arab (the
confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, where it empties into the
Persian Gulf) there is a difference in height of only about 100 feet (30
metres). As a result of the slow flow of the water, there are heavy
deposits of silt, and the riverbeds are raised. Consequently, the rivers
often overflow their banks (and may even change their course) when
they are not protected by high dikes. In recent times they have been
regulated above Baghdad by the use of escape channels with
overflow reservoirs. The extreme south is a region of extensive
marshes and reed swamps, Hawrs, which, probably since early times,
have served as an area of refuge for oppressed and displaced peoples.
The supply of water is not regular; as a result of the high average
temperatures and a very low annual rainfall, the ground of the plain of
latitude 35 N is hard and dry and unsuitable for plant cultivation for at
least eight months in the year. Consequently, agriculture without risk
of crop failure, which seems to have begun in the higher rainfall zones
and in the hilly borders of Mesopotamia in the 10th millennium BC,
began in Mesopotamia itself, the real heart of the civilization, only
after artificial irrigation had been invented, bringing water to large
stretches of territory through a widely branching network of canals.
Since the ground is extremely fertile and, with irrigation and the
necessary drainage, will produce in abundance, southern
Mesopotamia became a land of plenty that could support a
considerable population. The cultural superiority of north
Mesopotamia, which may have lasted until about 4000 BC, was finally
overtaken by the south when the people there had responded to the
challenge of their situation.
The present climatic conditions are fairly similar to those of 8,000 years
ago. An English survey of ruined settlements in the area 30 miles
around ancient Hatra (180 miles northwest of Baghdad) has shown
that the southern limits of the zone in which agriculture is possible
without artificial irrigation has remained unchanged since the first
settlement of Al-Jazirah.
The availability of raw materials is a historical factor of great
importance, as is the dependence on those materials that had to be
imported. In Mesopotamia, agricultural products and those from stock
breeding, fisheries, date palm cultivation, and reed industries [in short,
grain, vegetables, meat, leather, wool, horn, fish, dates, and reed and
plant-fibre products] were available in plenty and could easily be
produced in excess of home requirements to be exported. There are
bitumen springs at Hit (90 miles northwest of Baghdad) on the
Euphrates (the Is of Herodotus). On the other hand, wood, stone, and
metal were rare or even entirely absent. The date palm--virtually the
national tree of Iraq--yields a wood suitable only for rough beams and
not for finer work. Stone is mostly lacking in southern Mesopotamia,
although limestone is quarried in the desert about 35 miles to the
west and "Mosul marble" is found not far from the Tigris in its middle
reaches. Metal can only be obtained in the mountains, and the same is
true of precious and semiprecious stones. Consequently, southern
Mesopotamia in particular was destined to be a land of trade from the
start.
Only rarely could "empires" extending over a wider area guarantee
themselves imports by plundering or by subjecting neighbouring
regions. The raw material that epitomizes Mesopotamian civilization is
clay: in the almost exclusively mud-brick architecture and in the
number and variety of clay figurines and pottery artifacts,
Mesopotamia bears the stamp of clay as does no other civilization, and
nowhere in the world but in Mesopotamia and the regions over which
its influence was diffused was clay used as the vehicle for writing.
Such phrases as cuneiform civilization, cuneiform literature, and
cuneiform law can apply only where people had had the idea of using
soft clay not only for bricks and jars and for the jar stoppers on which
a seal could be impressed as a mark of ownership but also as the
vehicle for impressed signs to which established meanings were
assigned--an intellectual achievement that amounted to nothing less
than the invention of writing.