The thousand years between 3500 BCE and 2500 BCE saw urban civilization spread across the Middle East, carried by long-distance trade. Apart from near the banks of the river Nile itself, human habitation is only possible in the oases. The same was far less true for Egypt, where the Nile Valley is flanked by bone dry desert. These nomadic pastoralists were to play a large part in the history of the region. The importance of stock-rearing increased as the expanding populations of crop-growers in the river plains grew, and created an intensifying demand for the animal products which they lacked (wool, skin, meat, cheese and so on).Īs a result, societies grew up on the highlands and plains of the Middle East which specialized in stock-rearing, and took to a more nomadic way of life than before. In the highlands and grasslands surrounding these the river plains, however, keeping sheep and goats was a good use of the less fertile terrain. The communities which settled the broad river plains of Mesopotamia naturally came to devote much of their land to fields of wheat and barley, as this was the most productive use for it. See TimeMap of the Middle East in 3500 BC Nomads This created a wonderfully productive agriculture, lead to the rise of the first civilizations in world history, those of the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, and of Ancient Egypt in the Nile Valley. However, it is too dry for farming most of the year – except during the spring and early summer, when there is too much water!įarmers gradually mastered this challenging environment by developing irrigation techniques, beginning around 5000 BCE. This means that the land surrounding the lower reaches of these rivers is potentially very fertile. The melting snows in the high mountains and the spring rains in the hills carry fresh water and silt down into the lowlands, flooding the dry river plains and depositing a rich mud for miles around. Large parts of the Middle East lie within a hot, dry zone, where rainfall is insufficient to grow crops such as wheat and barley. ![]() 6000 BCE, and was gradually pushing westward into Europe and eastward into India and South Asia. Farming had spread around the Middle East by c. The highlands of the Middle East are the natural habitat of grasses, such as wild wheat and barley, and it was almost inevitable that agriculture based on these crops, which would eventually cover so much of the world, would begin here, around 10,000 years ago. Running through all these zones are long rivers, especially the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia, and the Nile in Egypt. ![]() Large parts are covered by desert or grassland elsewhere there are highlands and mountains covered by forests. ![]() The Middle East is a huge area, with many different kinds of climate and landscape. A region of dry grasslands and fertile river plains, the Ancient Middle East was the natural home to the first agriculture, and then to the first civilizations.
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