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Effects of agriculture
Agriculture in mesopotamia and egypt
Mesopotamia and Egypt comparison and differences on climate
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Mesopotamia Essay
How did the physical environment affect Mesopotamia? Well, the thing is that agriculture/farming, clothing and cities are 3 out of many things that affects the physical environment of Mesopotamia. And today I will be talking about these three things, agriculture/farming, clothing and cities that affect the physical environment of Mesopotamia. Firstly, agriculture and farming was a major problem in Mesopotamia because it was mostly desert. Mesopotamia had a large amount of silt. This silt was a one of the major cause of problems in the irrigation systems. This high sodium chloride content of the soil made farming in Mesopotamia much harder than it already was. The timing of the floods also affected the Mesopotamians.
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Also the area in Mesopotamia didn’t get enough water supply to water their crops, so irrigation was needed from the river. Since there wasn’t much to farm, the early Mesopotamians took help of wooden plows that helped them soften the soil before they farmed living crops such as apples, onions, grapes, turnip, wheat and barley. Also most farmers in Mesopotamia had to make tools out of clay, stone and timber. Farmers also raised fruits and vegetable and barn yard animals. People on the Tigris and Euphrates learned how to raise plants and animal about 10,000 years ago. In Sumer, the farmers grew crop like barley in land that didn’t get much rainfall and that was in short water supply. One way that they were able to farm was through expanding a system for fixing the flow and direction of water from the rivers. Hoping for a great crop, Mesopotamian people would worship Baal. Ball was a Mesopotamian God of sun and good crops. They also worshipped Ashnan, the Sumerian goddess of grain. Mesopotamia was preferably suited for agriculture because it was flat and it had no trees. Also there was a lot of sun and plenty of water from two mighty rivers that flooded every spring, giving nutrient-rich silt on the soil. Also
The first civilization to rise was the Mesopotamia, located in present day Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and Egypt, along the Nile River. It’s split in two ecological zones. In the south Babylonia (irrigation is vital) and north Assyria (agriculture is possible with rainfall and wells). By 4000 B.C.E., people had settled in large numbers in the river-watered lowlands of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Archaeologists have shown that large-scale irrigation appeared only long after urban civilization had already developed, meaning major waterworks were a consequence of urbanism (population). Mesopotamia cities were made of people called the Summerians in the land of Sumer located on the south of Babylonia. The Summerian city was one of
During the years of 3500 BC to 2500 BC, the geography of a land often impacted a civilizations development in great measures. Depending on the resources available or the detriments present due to certain topographical characteristics like rivers or deserts, a civilization could flourish or collapse. By studying the geographic features of growing societies like the Nile, Euphrates, and Tigris Rivers as well as the Mediterranean Sea of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the link between developing cultures and geography will be examined through sources, including Egypt: Ancient Culture, Modern Land edited by Jaromir Malek and Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek. To determine the extent of its influence, this investigation will attempt to compare and contrast the role of geography in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, focusing on the civilizations’ various periods of development and settlement.
The ancient cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt are a factor of the evolution of civilizations in present-day. Though, it wouldn’t occur if both of these ancient civilizations didn’t develop into successful ones. There are three similar components that led Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mesopotamia to become prosperous. These are the locations, their way of life, and their beliefs. All of these elements will be explored more thoroughly throughout this essay.
They felt that their gods were resentful, envious, and spiteful. This view developed from the many natural difficulties the Mesopotamians were troubled with. Their two water sources, the Tigris and the Euphrates, would flood violently and unpredictably, often destroying whole villages and cities. At times the rivers would produce fatal floods and on other occasions there would be droughts that would greatly reduce their water supply. The riverbanks would often be too steep and the rivers too wild to allow for transportation or trade. While Egypt enjoyed a natural perimeter that evaded invasion, Mesopotamia’s exposed plains gave way to repeated attacks. These extreme conditions resulted in the suffering and hunger of the
Before the beginning of history, people from across the land gradually developed numerous cultures, each unique in some ways while the same time having features in common. Mesopotamia and Egypt are important to the history of the world because of religious, social, political and economic development. Mesopotamia was the first civilization, which was around 3000 B.C., and all other countries evolved from it. Mesopotamia emerged from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The soil was rich and agriculture was plentiful. The Semitic nomads occupied the land around Akkad. The Sumerians established the city-states. Villages became urban centers. Because of the formation of the city-states everything flourished. However, Mesopotamian agriculture lacked stones; therefore mud brick became their major building block. Their diet consisted of fish from the rivers. The rivers were flooded frequently destroyed the cities. Mesopotamians made their living from crops and pottery.
Mesopotamia’s climate consisted of temperatures rising from 110 to 120°F in the summer. This led to many dry days that eventually led to a severe drought. Basically, there was little to no rainfall from the months of May until October. This led to the devastation of agriculture. Not only did the Sumerians have to deal with the effects of the droughts, they had to deal with the consequences of flooding as well. The Tigris and the Euphrates surrounded Mesopotamia thus when it would overflow more devastation would occur such as the washouts of embankments. (Hause, 2001, pg. 7)
Now you know was how geography affected many ancient civilizations and how those civilizations use them. The climate was a big role in the geography because it would depend if they were able to grow their crops. The rivers and mountains would offend help them grow their crops and protect them from other civilizations or invasions. Every civilization would use their geography that was around them the way that would most benefit them.
The ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt began to develop circa 3,000 B.C. Located near rivers, the lands offered fertile soil and an excess of crops that drew in many people. As more people arrived, the small settlements flourished into large, thriving civilizations. Many aspects of Mesopotamia and Egypt, such as their cities, their strongly organized government, and their religion, greatly contributed to the success of these two civilizations.
Before the land of what we no class Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and other countries in the middle east grains, such as wheat and wild barley, could be seen growing in the wild without human hand to cultivate and nurture it (Authors 2007). Over time, humans began to recognize the benefit of the plants and began the first signs of human agriculture. The skill of farming took time and trial and error, but along the way, humans began to settle down to tend to their crops. Though the first crops were nothing more than seed s thrown about without rhyme or reason to the process we know today such as fields having, rows and sorting out the seeds to create a higher yield each harvest (Authors 2007). Because of the trial and error process, agriculture of plants did not take place of a short period but took many, many years to evolve to what we know today as agriculture; the new fa...
The factors of irrigation, inherent topography, and useful bronze-age technical innovations paved the way for the agricultural revolution to occur in the land of Sumer and Akkad. The people of the Tigris and the Euphrates basin, the ancient Sumerians, using the fertile land and the abundant water supply of the area, developed sophisticated irrigation systems and created what was probably the first cereal agriculture. This historical factor resulted in an excess of production of cereals, dates, and other commodities. The consequence of excess is the emergence of a productive peasant agricultural system and a redistributive economy that fuels the progress of civilization.
Agriculture began approximately 12, 000 years ago and became the most important human advancement because it necessitated human settlement at specific areas. Apart from freeing man from hunting and gathering, advancements in agriculture accelerated the development of man, because of the availability of enough food, making man to diversify. Gorlinski writes that early forms of agriculture link to Fertile Crescent, which is the land that runs from South Turkey into Iraq, Syria, and finally to Lebanon and Israel (34). Moreover, it is apparent that agriculture enabled human civilization because it required extensive and organized human labor compared to hunting and gathering. In this way, agriculture was important in Rome, despite the fact that
The Mesopotamian geography affected their society because Mesopotamia was located on an open plain without protection from foreign intrusions. Egypt, on the other hand, was centered on the Nile River ad protected by natural boundaries. This allowed Egypt?s kingdom for prosper and last for thousands of years. Mesopotamia was not considered a nation or country, it was considered a region between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers that established a number of highly organized city-states. Since each city-state was independent there was no capital of Mesopotamia.
Early crops in East Asia included millet, rice and soybeans. The ancient Mesopotamian cultures - the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Chaldeans -developed an increasingly complex and rich agricultural system that freed many people from farming. Ancient farming is clearly recorded in Egypt, where it flourished along the Nile River. Egyptian farmers developed drainage and irrigation
Agriculture has been around for about 11,000 years. Around 9.500 BC, the first signs of crops began to show up around the coastlines of the Mediterranean. Emmer and einkorn wheat were the first crops that started to show up in this area, with barley, peas, lentils, chick peas, and flax following shortly. For the most part, everyone was a nomad and just travelled along with where a herd went. This went on until around 7.000 BC, and then the first signs of sowing and harvesting appeared in Mesopotamia. In the first ...
The first people that started to depend on farming for food were in Israel and Jordan in about 80000 B.C.. Farming became popular because people no longer had to rely on just searching for food to get their food. In about 3000 B.C. Countries such as Egypt and Mesopotamia started to develop large scale irrigation systems and oxen drawn plows. In about 500 B.C. the Romans started to realize that the soil needed certain nutrients in order to bare plants. They also realized that if they left the soil for a year with no plants, these important nutrients would replenish. So they started to leave half of a field fallow (unplanted). They then discovered that they could use legumes, or pulses to restore these vital nutrients, such as nitrogen, to the soil and this started the process known as rotating crops. They would plant half the field one year with a legume...