Palaeo-ecology of Mesopotamia

Abstract

The past is the key to the present. In previous chapters the present state of land, climate, soils and the living world has been tentatively described. The question arises why and how has Mesopotamia become what it is today. The present Iraq lives by intensive irrigation agriculture and, recently, on oil resources. But early travellers have commented on the monotony and poverty of parts of the Mesopotamian plain and archaeologists like Woolley (1960) have contrasted the ‘desolation’ around ancient thriving sites like Ur (see Annexe). A deep reach into the past contributes to the answer.