Free Your Mind: “Between Two Rivers”

Ancient Mesopotamia

. . . 3200 BC . . .

. . . The First Civilization Develops . . .

They Called Themselves—Sumerians

The Ancient Greeks called her Mesopotamia, she is often called the “Cradle of Civilization” because it is believed to have been the very first fixed society established by human-kind; geographically speaking, she lies in the Middle Eastern area of the globe, specifically between the Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers, both of which flow into the Persian Gulf, a land mass corresponding to modern-day Iraq, the northeastern section of Syria, to a much lesser extent southeastern Turkey and a smidgen of southwestern Iran.

A 1967 fossil site (known as Omo I) near the Omo River in South-western Ethiopia is the oldest evidence to date (2015) that proves the earliest “modern humans” roamed parts of East Central Africa about 195,000 years ago. They eventually wandered to “the land between two rivers” located in the far away Middle East, and once their set about establishing Mesopotamia. The most likely route is depicted by the thin white line on the map below:

Based upon what anthropologists have learned about Ancient Mesopotamia and South-western Ethiopia, common sense suggests that early man likely choose to migrate those thousands of miles in an effort to maintain a suitable supply of food following changes in the climate and the landscape of the region of Southcentral Africa. It’s likely they trekked north through modern day Ethiopia, then continued north through all of Sudan; sticking with the program they advanced north through most of Egypt. Once reaching the northern area of Egypt, early mankind was effectively blocked by the Mediterranean Sea and as it is generally believed he had not yet mastered reliable water craft; rather than venture west into modern day Libya, he wandered east toward the rising sun into modern day Israel. Once there he continued east crossing all of Jordan into Western Iraq. Having entered modern day Iraq, he continued east until he crossed the Euphrates River. For reasons unknown, there he stopped and proceeded to go about setting up house-keeping, farming, inventing the wheel, developing writing, and creating the world’s first cities.

This land mass would become known as “the Fertile Crescent”, home of the Mesopotamian Empire. Exactly why they stopped there, the available record has not shown; perhaps attempts at crossing the Tigris River was simply too difficult since it was rougher and faster flowing than the Euphrates or after being on the “road” for, by most counts, more than 100,000 years they were simply exhausted.

Regardless, “the land between two rivers” was filled with wildlife and edible vegetation making it an attractive area for early man-kind to finally settle down in. Many anthropologists believe that early humans didn’t developed civilization there until as late as 3500 BC while others have suggested that Mesopotamia was permanently settled hundreds of years earlier, sometime between 5500 BC and 4000 BC.

Nonetheless, throughout Mesopotamia, the land was very fertile making it suitable for the development of farming. In the Northern region, there are many rivers and streams feed by the surrounding mountains. Generally speaking the northern area consists of mountains, hills, and plains. Included in the bargain, there’s a rainy season in the northern region too that helps water the soil, which made the area ideal for early agriculture. In contrast, the southern region, which became known as Sumer, is much hotter (often 110° in summer months) and dryer. Surprisingly it’s made up of marshes; wide, flat, barren plains, but mostly dusty desert. Wouldn’t you know it, the desert dust was fertile and the two large rivers were perfect for the development of irrigation.

Not un-like today, in ancient times, some resources in this “ideal” region were scarce or even absent; this encouraged trade within the region and beyond. Sustained by lucrative trade relationships with its neighbors coupled with nearly perfect agricultural conditions, Mesopotamia grew to become a powerful kingdom.

Sounds a lot like this “Fertile Crescent” had all the right stuff that, and if given sufficient time, would grow into an empire capable of forever leading the world; then and now!

But surprise, surprise, as fate would have it, the entire Mesopotamian Empire would eventually fail, primarily because the region was destined to be invaded and occupied repeatedly throughout recorded history.

A contributor to collapse particularly in southern Mesopotamia where irrigation was essential could be described as a freak of nature: You see the rivers were higher in elevation than the surrounding fertile plains and desert; this happenstance allowed water for irrigation to flow easily into the farming fields by gravity alone. Once the water was on the fields, it could not readily drain away because the fields were lower than the rivers. So practicality dictated that simple evaporation be utilized as part of the irrigation process, this not only left dissolved mineral salts behind, but also drew salts upward from lower levels of the soil. In this manner, over a long period of time, by about 2300 B.C., the soil became toxic and could no longer support crops; so, farmed food production in Mesopotamia was reduced to a tiny fraction of what it had been. Many fields became essentially useless and were abandoned.

Aside from unsuccessful long term farming techniques, Mesopotamia was destined to be over-run and repeatedly conquered throughout history by invading clans, latter day empires, and religious movements which prevented the advancements in living standards you might expect from a society that appeared to be blessed with such a promising future.

Following is an abbreviated sequence of major assaults attempting to describe this early society which, by most accounts, failed miserably in maintaining a long term progressive peaceful civilization:

Mesopotamia was first over-run and occupied by the Akkadian Empire (1^st invasion) in 2340 BC who built an domain stretching over most of the Sumerian city-states and extending as far away as modern day Lebanon. Perhaps their paramount achievement was the establishment of their capital city, Babylon, which was the commercial and cultural center of the Middle East for almost two thousand years. The Akkadian empire lasted for some 150 years, before slowly disintegrating and being overrun by various tribes from the north.

By 2125 BC, the Sumerian city of Ur (2^nd takeover) in southern Mesopotamia rose up in revolt and overcame the remnants of the Akkadian Empire, resulting in the renewal of Sumerian city-states. However the last Sumerian dynasty fell around 2000 BC, Mesopotamia then drifted into conflict and chaos for nearly a hundred years.

Around 1900 BC, a group called the Amorites (3^rd invasion) managed to gain control of most of the Mesopotamian region; which lasted until 1600 BC.

Roaring into history from mysterious origins were the Hittites, (4^th occupation) they would rule a great empire that stretched from Mesopotamia to modern day Syria and Palestine from 1600 BC to 717 BC. The Hittites were the most successful of the new invaders to the area; in large part because they were the first group of people to utilize iron weapons and advanced chariots. However they didn’t control the center of Mesopotamia or the city of Babylon for very long before another Indo-European people . . . The Kassite’s, (5^th conquest) invaded Mesopotamia; the first invasion by horseback. They rushed in and conquered a large part of Mesopotamia in the early 1500s and began what would become a 500-year reign in Babylon; here they dominated the center of Mesopotamia both militarily and commercially. Unfortunately history knows very little about the Kassite’s except that their conquerors claimed they were first class barbarians and savages.

The great Indo-European kingdoms had been weakened by the incessant troubles of war and invasion . . . So the Assyrian Empire (6^th takeover) recognizing the weakness, seized control in 911 BC.

Then the Chaldeans (Neo-Babylonians) — (7^th invading group) gained control about 300 years later in 610 BC. You may recall, their claim to fame was in 597 BC, shortly after the Chaldeans conquered Jerusalem they forced, possibly as many as 10,000 members of the Jewish population, to relocate from Jerusalem to the city of Babylon which was the capital of the Chaldean empire. This deportation marked the beginning of the “Exile” in Jewish history.

Eventually the independence of Mesopotamia was brought to an end by the Achaemenian Persian Empire, or the “first Persian Empire” who overpowered Babylon in 539 BC. Thereafter the region between the two rivers became, for the next 1,000 years or so, a province within a string of foreign empires - including the first Persian Empire who were Iranians, so named because they hailed from the Persian Gulf region; then came the Hellenistic Greeks, the Parthians (more Iranians), and finally the Sassanians (also Iranians) who survived more than 400 years. Fact is, they were the last Iranian empire before the Muslim conquests, which brought a temporary collapse to the Sassanian Empire in 633 AD; the Muslims soon lost their holdings to Iranian counter attacks but a second Muslim invasion began in 636 AD which led to the permanent end of Sassanian control in the region.

The purpose of this rather dull exercise in Mesopotamia’s nearly consistent state of conflict has been to demonstrate that historically, there are more elements at play than simple differences in “religious politics” of the region.

Actually some folks might argue that each “defeated intruder” to the region had grown complacent or had developed a false sense of security, therefore inadvertently welcoming invasion, which resulted in a negative impact on potential cultural growth and development. Others have said the region benefited in in some small way with each invading group; simply put, these folks might argue that some sort of advancement was realized with each conquest. Examples include: Iron weaponry and the introduction of horses which must have improved transportation.

Yes, it’s undeniable that with the inception of Islam, founded by “The Prophet” Mohamed in 622 AD, hostilities throughout Mesopotamia and the Middle East Region in general became, shall we say, an acceptable “way of life”; nevertheless, repeated invasions, wars & conquests of Mesopotamia were commonplace prior to the introduction of Islam.

These Islamic believers are generally called Muslims; they total about 1,126,000,000 (83% Sunni; 16% Shiite) throughout the region; a majority of whom believe redemption includes faith, good works, and prayer 5 times a day. Muslims, like Jews and Christians, have only one God (Allah); and true believers unfortunately are permitted to kill for Allah . . . A sure method of madness that will insure many, many more failures.

The people of Mesopotamia have had more than a few golden opportunities to get things right and lead the rest of the world, however as the “Comparative Time Line” depicted below reflects, so have other noteworthy societies: