Tigris and Euphrates

A similar connection between the world around us and cosmology can be found in the land between the Tigris and Euphrates. The Earth was regarded as a flat disc, surrounded by a vast hollow space which was in turn surrounded by the Armament of heaven. In the Sumerian creation myth, heaven and Earth formed... 

The Middle Eastern traditions stem from the ancient civilizations of the area known as the Fertile Crescent. This area stretches from the eastern Mediterranean coast that is now part of Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, to the fertile lands that exist between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers as they flow to the Persian Gulf. To the ancient Greeks this eastern end was known as Mesopotamia and it is now part of Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. Unlike Egypt, with its insular and stable culture, the Fertile Crescent was inhabited by several cultures, which migrated, conquered, and merged over the centuries. 

Mesopotamia—The area in the ancient Middle East between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which is now in Iraq. 

Ancient civilizations located on river floodplains were usually blessed with a fertile land. Writings dating back to 4500 B.P. mention the phenomenal yields obtained by the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now Iraq. The naturally rich alluvium was maintained in part by annual flooding. The water was allowed to remain on the land as long as possible, so that a maximum amount of mineral-rich silt would be deposited (Tisdale and Nelson, 1966, p. 5). 

Fig. 8.11 The location of obsidian sources and samples in the early Neolithic of Southwest Asia. Major rivers shown on the map are the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates. Two major sources are shown in Anatolia and two in Armenia. The distribution of obsidian from these sources is seen at settlements across the area. The distributions are largely separate with the exception of one site where obsidian from both source areas is found...

Eventually, a drift and concentration of tribes founded the great civilisations of the Nile in Egypt, Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates in modern-day Iraq, the Hwang-Ho valley in China and the Indus civilisation of Mohenjo Daro and Harappa - all of which came into their own between 4000 and 2000 BC. 

In Mesopotamia he observed the ruins of the ancient civilization, including the old irrigation system that was apparently made useless by the millions of tons of silt that clogged it. The soils of the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are still fertile but too arid for use without an irrigation system. He states that at its zenith the population of Mesopotamia was probably between 17 and 25 millions. All of Iraq now has only about 4 millions, including nomadic peoples. 

Nelson, W.R. (1956). Twin rivers, twin treasures A study of the control and use of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Iraq. Development Board Baghdad. http //www.zoominfo.eom/ search/profile/person personld=145253564 targetid=profile... 

BC pottery produced by neolithic cultures in Tigris and Euphrates river valleys, Middle East... 

The Greeks and the Romans could not have made their contributions to forensic science had it not been for a much earlier invention Ihe law. The first-known codified laws were put forth by the peoples who occupied the Tigris and Euphrates River valley areas in what were the earliest-known cities and civilization. The earliest-known laws and legal systems appeared around 2000 b.c. Arguably, the most famous was Hammurabi s code, named for the Babylonicin king in power around 1700 b.c. 

Many historians believe that the first grain beers were brewed before 5000 B.C. by the ancient Chaldeans (the people who settled at the southern ends of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now Iraq) and the Egyptians. These first beers, made from barley—a grain uniquely suited for brewing, were the forerunners of those now produced in all of the developed countries of the West. 

Significant engineering achievements must he credited to the ancient dwellers of Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, currently the country of Iraq. In this area, the wheeled cart is said to have first appeared (2). In southern Mesopotamia, at the beginning of recorded history, the ancient and mysterious Sumerian people constructed canals, temples, and city walls that comprised the world s first engineering works (5). 

Instead, we must understand the majority of animals, that were used for wool rather than meat, as having been variably dispersed across all available ranges, including upstream of the Tigris and Euphrates, in the Transtigridian lowlands... 

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