The Fertile Crescent
The Fertile Crescent is the region in the Middle East that curves, in a quarter-moon shape, from the Persian Gulf through modern-day southern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and northern Egypt. The term was first coined in 1916 by the Egyptologist James Henry Breasted in his work Ancient Times: A History of the Early World. His phrase was widely circulated through the publications of the day becoming, finally, the common designation for this region. The Fertile Crescent is traditionally associated (in Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths) with the earthly location of the Garden of Eden.
Cradle of Civilization
Known as the Cradle of Civilization, the Fertile Crescent is regarded as the birthplace of agriculture, urbanization, writing, trade, science, history, and organized religion and was first populated around 10,000 B.C. when agriculture and the domestication of animals began in the region. By 9,000 B.C. the cultivation of wild grains and cereals was widespread and, by 5,000 B.C., irrigation of agricultural crops were fully developed. By 4,500 B.C. the cultivation of wool-bearing sheep was practiced widely. The first cities began to rise (Eridu, the first, according to the Sumerians, in 5,400 B.C., then Uruk and the others) around 4.500 B.C. and cultivation of wheat and grains was practiced, in addition to the further domestication of animals (by the year 3,500 B.C. the image of the breed of dog known as the Saluki was appearing regularly on vases and other ceramics as well as wall paintings). The unusually fertile soil of the region encouraged the further cultivation of wheat as well as rye, barley, and legumes. Some of the earliest beer in the world was brewed in the great cities along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (the most ancient evidence of beer brewing coming from the Sumerian Godin Tepe settlement in modern-day Iran). From 3,400 B.C., the priests (who were earlier the rulers of the cities) were responsible for the distribution of food and the careful monitoring of surplus for trade.
The “Promised Land”
By 2,300 B.C., soap was produced from tallow and ash and was in wide use. Personal hygiene was valued in relation to one’s standing within one’s community and with the gods. Attention to one’s person in terms of hygiene was stressed in that human beings were thought to have been created as help-mates to the gods, and so should make themselves presentable in the performance of their duties (this was especially so for the Priestly Class). From 2,334-2,279 B.C., Sargon of Akkad (Sargon the Great) ruled over the first multicultural empire in Mesopotamia, allowing for the growth of great building projects, art works, and religious literature (such as the hymns to Inanna by Sargon’s daughter, Enheduanna). By 2,000 B.C., Babylon controlled the Fertile Crescent and the region saw advances in law (Hammurabi’s famous code), literature (The Epic of Gilgamesh, among other works), religion (the development of the Babylonian pantheon of the gods), science, and math. From 1,900-1,400 B.C. trade with Europe, Egypt, Phoenicia, and the Indian subcontinent was flourishing, resulting in the spread of literacy, culture, and religion to these regions. It is speculated that it was in either 1,900 or around 1,750 B.C. that the biblical patriarch Abraham left his native city of Ur for the “promised land,” carrying the tales and legends of Mesopotamia with him to in time appear, transformed, as biblical narratives. If it was not, in fact, Abraham, it was certainly someone like him, as there are many parallels between stories such as the Myth of Adapa and the Book of Genesis’ tale of the Fall, as well as the Mesopotamian Atrahasis and Noah’s Flood.
Changing Empires
The region changed hands many times through the ages. By 600 B.C. the Assyrians controlled the Fertile Crescent and, by 580, the Neo-Babylonian Chaldean Empire under Nebuchadnezzar II ruled the region. In 539 B.C. Babylon fell to the Cyrus the Great after the Battle of Opis and the lands fell under the control of the Achaemenid Empire (also known as The First Persian Empire). Alexander the Great invaded the area in 334 B.C. and, after him, it was ruled by the Parthians, among others, until the coming of Rome in 116 A.D. After the short-lived Roman annexation and occupation, the region was conquered by the Sassanid Persians (circa 226 A.D.) and, finally, by the Arabian Muslims in the 7th century A.D.
By this time the glorious achievements of the early cities that grew up beside the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers had long been disseminated throughout the ancient world. But the cities themselves were mostly in ruins through the destruction caused by the many military conquests in the region, as well as natural causes such as earthquakes and fire. Rampant urbanization and overuse of the land also resulted in the decline and eventual abandonment of the cities of the Fertile Crescent. The city of Eridu, considered by the early Mesopotamians to be the first city on earth, built and inhabited by the gods, had been abandoned since 600 B.C. Meanwhile Uruk, the city of Gilgamesh, was abandoned by 630 A.D. and Babylon, the city that gave writing, law, and culture to the ancient world (but whose name the writers of the biblical narratives would link forever with sin and evil) was a vacant ruin.
The Fertile Crescent Today
In 2001 A.D., National Geographic News reported that the Fertile Crescent was rapidly becoming so only in name because of extensive damming of the rivers as well as a massive draining works program initiated in southern Iraq from the 1970s on. The fertile marshlands that once covered 15,000 – 20,000 square kilometers (5,800 – 7,700 square miles) had shrunk to a mere 1,500 – 2,000 square kilometers (580 – 770 square miles). Environmental groups and regional farmers plead governments of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey to stop the damming and drainage projects, but were ignored. The situation worsened so that, presently, the region which once was the lush paradise and cradle of civilization largely consists of dry, cracked plains of sunbaked clay.