The first civilization of ancient Mesopotamia prospered thanks to the rivers and the tides

There are many millennia, the tides turned to the ancient Sumerians who built the first civilization – literally. Coming up in the south of Mesopotamia about 6,000 years ago, Sumer has filled a network of city workers to become the cradle of civilization. Agriculture was the under-tension that started everything, but like all civilizations, Sumer needed one thing most of them to survive: water.

A new study published in Plos a suggests that Summer’s success was based on the rivers and tide movement. The tiger and euphrates rivers were natural blessings for the Sumerians, which took advantage of the fertile floodplanes and created a system of channels to feed their cultures.

Their use of water would continue to lay the foundations for cultural innovations and, ultimately, change the course of history.

The rise of civilization in Mesopotamia

The first people to settle permanently in the south of Mesopotamia (in what is now in Iraq) were part of the Ubaid culture, starting around 6,500 BCE, Ubaid culture was characterized by small agricultural colonies, but over the years, they have started to embark on specialized professions. Later, they inaugurated the first urbanization practices, establishing religious temples when they spread to the north.

The Uruk period which followed, arising about 4000 BCE, is when civilization has flourished. He brought larger cities, technological innovation and the advent of writing in the form of a proto-cineform. Summer had become a well -oiled machine, and the fuel that helped him run was water.

Learn more: The Euphrates river dries – here is what is at stake for humans and fauna

Use tides

Using satellite cards and archaeological samples from the old Lagash site, the new study has recreated what the Summer Coast looks like in ancient times.

The study shows that the Sumerians benefited from the start of the tides. The Persian Gulf spread more inside around 7,000 years to 5,000 years, and according to the researchers, “the tides pushed fresh water twice a day in the lower scope of the tiger and the Euphrates.”

“Our results show that Summer was literally and culturally built on water rhythms,” said author Liviu Giosan, geoscientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in a press release. “The cyclical models of the tides as well as the Delta morphodynamics – how the form or the form of a landscape changes over time due to dynamic processes – have been deeply woven in the myths, innovations and the daily life of Sumerians.”

The flow of rivers finally created deltas – reliefs, generally triangular in shape, where the sediments are deposited – at the head of the Gulf. Consequently, access to the tides in the interior has been cut and the loss of tides probably caused an ecological and economic crisis for the Sumerian cities.

The acute thinking of Sumerians

Due to the evolution of the landscape, the Sumerians had to respond by developing work for irrigation and the protection of floods. The researchers say that the implementation of these strategies has launched the golden age of Sumer.

“We often imagine old and static landscapes,” said author Reed Goodman, professor of environmental social sciences at Clemson University. “But the Mesopotamian delta was anything but. His agitated and changing lands required ingenuity and cooperation, causing part of the intensive agriculture of history and daring social experiences in history.”

The researchers say that the dependence of Sumerians with regard to the tides, as well as the environmental changes they had to face, may have shaped the components of their culture. One of the ways that this can be seen is by mythology in the tales of Enki, the Sumerian god of water and the myth of Sumerian creation (also called Eridu Genesis).

Faced with a radical change, the Sumerian company persevered and emerged even stronger. Their intelligent thought during this moment of the history basin of history is what saved their civilization – and prepared the terrain so that all future civilizations arrive.

Learn more: A 3,600 -year -old reed boat provides clues to early urbanization in Mesopotamia

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