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Fertile Crescent

Coordinates:36°N40°E/ 36°N 40°E/36; 40
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Further information:History of the Middle East

Map of the Fertile Crescent
A 15th century copy of Ptolemy's fourth Asian map, depicting the area known as the Fertile Crescent.
A 15th century copy ofPtolemy's fourth Asian map, depicting the area known as the Fertile Crescent

TheFertile Crescent(Arabic:الهلال الخصيب) is a crescent-shaped region in theMiddle East,spanning modern-dayIraq,Israel,Jordan,Lebanon,Palestine,andSyria,together with northernKuwait,south-easternTurkey,and westernIran.[1][2]Some authors also includeCyprusand northernEgypt.[3][4]

The Fertile Crescent is believed to be the first region wheresettled farmingemerged as people started the process of clearance and modification of natural vegetation to grow newly domesticated plants ascrops.Early humancivilizationssuch asSumerinMesopotamiaflourished as a result.[5]Technological advances in the region include the development ofagricultureand the use ofirrigation,ofwriting,thewheel,andglass,most emerging first inMesopotamia.

Terminology

1916 map of the Fertile Crescent byJames H. Breasted,who popularised usage of the phrase.

The term "Fertile Crescent" was popularized byarchaeologistJames Henry BreastedinOutlines of European History(1914) andAncient Times, A History of the Early World(1916).[6][7][8][9][10][11]He wrote:[6]

It lies like an army facing south, with one wing stretching along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and the other reaching out to the Persian Gulf, while the center has its back against the northern mountains. The end of the western wing is Palestine; Assyria makes up a large part of the center; while the end of the eastern wing is Babylonia. [...] This great semicircle, for lack of a name, may be called the Fertile Crescent.

There is no single term for this region in antiquity. At the time that Breasted was writing, it roughly corresponded with the territories of theOttoman Empireceded to Britain and France in theSykes–Picot Agreement.Historian Thomas Scheffler has noted that Breasted was following a trend in Western geography to "overwrite the classical geographical distinctions between continents, countries and landscapes with large, abstract spaces", drawing parallels with the work ofHalford Mackinder,who conceptualised Eurasia as a 'pivot area' surrounded by an 'inner crescent',Alfred Thayer Mahan'sMiddle East,andFriedrich Naumann'sMitteleuropa.[12]

In current usage, the Fertile Crescent includesIsrael,Palestine,Iraq,Syria,Lebanon,Egypt,andJordan,as well as the surrounding portions ofTurkeyandIran.In addition to theTigrisandEuphrates,riverwater sources include theJordan River.The inner boundary is delimited by the dry climate of theSyrian Desertto the south. Around the outer boundary are theAnatolianandArmenian highlandsto the north, theSahara Desertto the west,Sudanto the south, and theIranian plateauto the east.[citation needed]

Biodiversity and climate

As crucial as rivers andmarshlandswere to therise of civilizationin the Fertile Crescent, they were not the only factor. The area is geographically important as the "bridge" betweenNorth AfricaandEurasia,which has allowed it to retain a greater amount ofbiodiversitythan eitherEuropeorNorth Africa,whereclimate changesduring theIce Ageled to repeatedextinctionevents when ecosystems became squeezed against the waters of theMediterranean Sea.TheSaharan pump theoryposits that this Middle Easternland bridgewas extremely important to the modern distribution ofOld Worldfloraandfauna,including thespread of humanity.[citation needed]

The area has borne the brunt of thetectonic divergencebetween the African and Arabianplatesand the converging Arabian and Eurasian plates, which has made the region a very diverse zone of high snow-covered mountains.[citation needed]

The Fertile Crescent had many diverseclimates,and major climatic changes encouraged the evolution of many"r" typeannual plants,which produce more edible seeds than"K" typeperennial plants.The region's dramatic variety in elevation gave rise to many species of edible plants for early experiments in cultivation. Most importantly, the Fertile Crescent was home to the eightNeolithic founder cropsimportant in earlyagriculture(i.e., wild progenitors toemmer wheat,einkorn,barley,flax,chick pea,pea,lentil,bitter vetch), and four of the five most important species ofdomesticatedanimals—cows,goats,sheep,andpigs;the fifth species, thehorse,lived nearby.[13]The Fertile Crescent flora comprises a high percentage of plants that canself-pollinate,but may also becross-pollinated.[13]These plants, called "selfers",were one of the geographical advantages of the area because they did not depend on other plants for reproduction.[13]

History

Area of the fertile crescent,c. 7500 BCE,with main sites of thePre-Pottery Neolithicperiod. The area ofMesopotamiaproper was not yet settled by humans. IncludesGöbekli Tepe,a site in modern-dayTurkeythat is dated circa 9000 BCE.

As well as possessing many sites with the skeletal and cultural remains of both pre-modern and earlymodern humans(e.g., atTabunandEs Skhulcaves), laterPleistocenehunter-gatherers,andEpipalaeolithicsemi-sedentary hunter-gatherers (theNatufians); the Fertile Crescent is most famous for its sites related to theorigins of agriculture.The western zone around the Jordan and upper Euphrates rivers gave rise to the first knownNeolithicfarmingsettlements (referred to asPre-Pottery Neolithic A(PPNA)), which date to around 9,000 BCE and includes very ancient sites such asGöbekli Tepe,Chogha Golan,andJericho (Tell es-Sultan).

This region, alongsideMesopotamia(Greek for "between rivers", between the riversTigrisandEuphrates,lies in the east of the Fertile Crescent), also saw the emergence of earlycomplex societiesduring the succeedingBronze Age.There is also early evidence from the region forwritingand the formation ofhierarchicalstate levelsocieties. This has earned the region the nickname "Thecradle of civilization".

It is in this region where the firstlibrariesappeared about 4,500 years ago. The oldest known libraries are found inNippur(in Sumer) andEbla(in Syria), both fromc. 2500 BCE.[14]

Both the Tigris and Euphrates start in theTaurus Mountainsof what is modern-dayTurkey.Farmers in southern Mesopotamia had to protect their fields from flooding each year. Northern Mesopotamia had sufficient rain to make some farming possible. To protect against flooding they made levees.[15]

Since theBronze Age,the region's naturalfertilityhas been greatly extended byirrigationworks, upon which much of its agricultural production continues to depend. The last two millennia have seen repeated cycles of decline and recovery as past works have fallen into disrepair through the replacement of states, to be replaced under their successors. Another ongoing problem has beensalination—gradual concentration of salt and other minerals in soils with a long history of irrigation.

Early domestications

Prehistoric seedlessfigswere discovered atGilgal Iin theJordan Valley,suggesting that fig trees were being planted some 11,400 years ago.[16]Cerealswere already grown inSyriaas long as 9,000 years ago.[17]Small cats (Felis silvestris) also were domesticated in this region.[18]Also,legumesincludingpeas,lentilsandchickpeawere domesticated in this region.

Domesticated animalsinclude thecattle,sheep,goat,domestic pig,cat,anddomestic goose.

Cosmopolitan diffusion

See also:Genetic history of the Middle East
Maunsell's map, a Pre-World War I British Ethnographical Map of the Fertile Crescent area
Diffusion of agriculture from the Fertile Crescent after 9000 BCE
Theancient Near East
Regions and states
Fertile Crescent

Mesopotamia

Egypt

Iran

Anatolia

TheLevant

Arabia

Archaeological periods
Languages
Literature
Religion and mythology
Religion and mythology

Cosmology

Other topics

Modern analyses[19][20]comparing 24 craniofacial measurements reveal a relatively diverse population within the pre-Neolithic,NeolithicandBronze AgeFertile Crescent,[19]supporting the view that several populations occupied this region during these time periods.[19][21][22][23][24][25][26]Similar arguments do not hold true for theBasquesandCanary Islandersof the same time period, as the studies demonstrate those ancient peoples to be "clearly associated with modern Europeans". Additionally, no evidence from the studies demonstratesCro-Magnoninfluence, contrary to former suggestions.[19]

The studies further suggest adiffusionof this diverse population away from the Fertile Crescent, with the early migrants moving away from theNear East—westward intoEuropeandNorth Africa,northward toCrimea,and northeastward toMongolia.[19]They took their agricultural practices with them and interbred with thehunter-gathererswhom they subsequently came in contact with while perpetuating their farming practices. This supports priorgenetic[27][28][29][30][31]andarchaeological[19][32][33][34][35][36]studies which have all arrived at the same conclusion.

Consequently, contemporaryin situpeoples absorbed the agricultural way of life of those early migrants who ventured out of the Fertile Crescent. This is contrary to the suggestion that the spread of agriculture disseminated out of the Fertile Crescent by way of sharing of knowledge. Instead, the view now supported by a preponderance of evidence is that it occurred by actual migration out of the region, coupled with subsequent interbreeding with indigenous local populations whom the migrants came in contact with.[19]

The studies show also that not all present dayEuropeansshare strong genetic affinities to theNeolithicandBronze Ageinhabitants of the Fertile Crescent; the closest ties to the Fertile Crescent rest with Southern Europeans. The same study further demonstrates all present-dayEuropeansto be closely related.[19]

Languages

Linguistically, the Fertile Crescent was a region of great diversity. Historically,Semitic languagesgenerally prevailed in the modern regions ofIraq,Syria,Jordan,Lebanon,Israel,Palestine,Sinaiand the fringes of southeastTurkeyand northwestIran,as well as theSumerian(alanguage isolate) in Iraq, whilst in the mountainous areas to the east and north a number of generally unrelatedlanguage isolateswere found, including;Elamite,GutianandKassiteinIran,andHattic,KaskianandHurro-Urartianin Turkey. The precise affiliation of these, and their date of arrival, remain topics of scholarly discussion. However, given lack of textual evidence for the earliest era of prehistory, this debate is unlikely to be resolved in the near future.

The evidence that does exist suggests that, by the third millennium BCE and into the second, several language groups already existed in the region. These included:[37][38][39][40][41][42]

Links between Hurro-Urartian and Hattic and the indigenous languages of the Caucasus have frequently been suggested, but are not generally accepted.

See also

References

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  6. ^abAbt, Jeffrey (2011).American Egyptologist: the life of James Henry Breasted and the creation of his Oriental Institute.Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 193–194, 436.ISBN978-0-226-0011-04.
  7. ^Goodspeed, George Stephen (1904).A History of the ancient world: for high schools and academies.New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp.5–6.
  8. ^Breasted, James Henry (1914)."Earliest man, the Orient, Greece, and Rome"(PDF).In Robinson, James Harvey; Breasted, James Henry; Beard, Charles A. (eds.).Outlines of European history, Vol. 1.Boston: Ginn. pp. 56–57.Archived(PDF)from the original on 2022-10-09."The Ancient Orient" map is inserted between pages 56 and 57.
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  10. ^Clay, Albert T. (1924). "The so-called Fertile Crescent and desert bay".Journal of the American Oriental Society.44:186–201.doi:10.2307/593554.ISSN0003-0279.JSTOR593554.
  11. ^Kuklick, Bruce (1996)."Essay on methods and sources".Puritans in Babylon: the ancient Near East and American intellectual life, 1880–1930.Princeton: Princeton University Press. p.241.ISBN978-0-691-02582-7.Textbooks...The true texts brought all of these strands together, the most important being James Henry Breasted,Ancient Times: A History of the Early World(Boston, 1916), but a predecessor, George Stephen Goodspeed,A History of the Ancient World(New York, 1904), is outstanding. Goodspeed, who taught at Chicago with Breasted, antedated him in the conception of a 'crescent' of civilization.
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  19. ^abcdefghBrace, C. Loring; Seguchi, Noriko; Quintyn, Conrad B.; Fox, Sherry C.; Nelson, A. Russell; Manolis, Sotiris K.; Qifeng, Pan (2006)."The questionable contribution of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age to European craniofacial form".Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.103(1): 242–247.Bibcode:2006PNAS..103..242B.doi:10.1073/pnas.0509801102.PMC1325007.PMID16371462.
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  21. ^Lazaridis, Iosif; Nadel, Dani; Rollefson, Gary; Merrett, Deborah C.; Rohland, Nadin; Mallick, Swapan; Fernandes, Daniel; Novak, Mario; Gamarra, Beatriz; Sirak, Kendra; Connell, Sarah; Stewardson, Kristin; Harney, Eadaoin; Fu, Qiaomei; Gonzalez-Fortes, Gloria (2016-08-25)."Genomic insights into the origin of farming in the ancient Near East".Nature.536(7617): 419–424.Bibcode:2016Natur.536..419L.doi:10.1038/nature19310.PMC5003663.PMID27459054.
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  26. ^Findings include remains of food items carried to theLevantfromNorth Africa——ParthenocarpicfigsandNileshellfish(please refer toNatufian culture#Long-distance exchange).
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