Research Question:

Was the agricultural revolution a positive or negative development for humans?

Excerpt from: Article on Sciencing website: https://sciencing.com/temperature-climate-ancient-mesopotamia-9330.html 

The Temperature and Climate in Ancient Mesopotamia 

Updated April 11, 2018

By Gabriella Munoz

"Mesopotamia is a region of Southwest Asia that corresponds to modern-day Iraq, Syria, western Iran and southeast Turkey. Thousands of years ago Mesopotamia’s weather was semi-arid, with hot summers and sporadic rain. However, the presence of two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, made it humid, fertile and ideal for nomads to start settlements. The abundance of water and nutrient-rich soil made it an ideal place to develop agriculture. More tribes made the region home and gave birth to one of the world’s first settlements. Mesopotamia, which in Greek means "the land between the rivers," eventually became the cradle of world civilization.

Ancient Mesopotamia and the "Fertile Crescent" experienced enough rainfall, and had more than adequate supplies of water from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, to make the region suitable for agriculture and permanent human settlement.

The Tigris and the Euphrates follow roughly parallel courses as they flow from the highlands of eastern Turkey through Syria and Iraq and into the Persian Gulf. The rivers flooded the area every spring when snow from nearby mountains melted and made its way into their currents. The floods, although destructive, also enriched the sandy soil with vital nutrients, which made agriculture feasible. Little by little the cities that were adjacent to the rivers managed to produce enough food to trade with other settlements.

Human creativity is also responsible for ancient Mesopotamia's development. When the first cities were formed, their dwellers discovered that they could have access to water year-round if they built an irrigation system. To tame the rivers, early Mesopotamians built canals and reservoir basins. By 3500 BCE, Mesopotamia’s residents had adapted to the then semi-arid region and had learned how to produce sustainable crops."