A tale of (more than) two rivers: Tigris & Euphrates
Many an ancient kingdom has risen to fame and fortune off the backs, or should I say banks, of the Tigris & Euphrates river system. So if it’s got two names, it must be two rivers right? Yeah that’s true enough, although they do technically meet when they become the Shatt al-Arab near the modern Iraqi town of al-Qurnah before filtering into the Persian Gulf.
Lost already? Ok let’s start again, I’m new to this so give me a chance. Ok, let’s see. So Syria and Iraq, those politically-unstable, war-devastated countries you see on the news, where the foreign office definitely does not recommend you holiday this summer? Well, many thousands of years ago they used to be very successful in supporting large populations and wealthy kingdoms; though the areas were not any less politically-unstable, or susceptible to warring neighbours. This area was known as Mesopotamia and is located in what we call Syria, Iraq and Kuwait today. The main feature of this region of Mesopotamia (by the way the name itself is derived from the Ancient Greek to mean ‘land between rivers’) are the two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, that run from the Anatolian mountains in the north-west in a southeasterly direction before combining and filtering into the Persian Gulf off the coast of Iraq (scroll down for bigger maps!). Many of the Tigris-Euphrates tributaries (smaller rivers that collect and join into larger ones) come from far and wide, mostly from Iraq and Iran.
Great, we know where they are. You want to tell all your friends about it? Well go ahead! Wait, you’re… unsure of how to pronounce the names. Geesh, that’s embarrassing. I’m joking of course, unless you are adept in Ancient Greek or Old Persian, some of these words can be pretty daunting to pronounce and no-one wants to look like a fool when their history prof has to correct them. So the accepted modern pronunciation goes a little something like this… ‘tie-gris’ and ‘yoo-frey-teez’. There you go, now you can confidently say you learnt something very special today and tell everyone you know, or correct them if they say it wrong and pretend like you knew all along, I won’t tell.
Both the Tigris and the Euphrates effectively paved the way for European and Near East civilisation, so much so that many historians refer to Mesopotamia as the ‘cradle of civilisation’, at least for the western world. Wow, a big title, but why does it deserve it? Well the first ‘modern’ civilisations to emerge developed right here, in this bit of land between these two unwitting rivers. Now you’ve got to understand that back in 2000 BC, there weren’t vast kingdoms and empires owned by one people, but much smaller areas, sometimes even just singular cities, that were a collection of people who figured out it was generally better to stick together. The ‘city-states’ and smaller kingdoms of Mesopotamia that arose around this time had more old names, though you might be able to pronounce a few of these: Ubaid, Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylon. Now if you ever listened to the Old Testament in Church, you may well recognise one or two of these. So what makes these guys special, how come they’re considered the ‘cradle of civilisation’? Well a condition for this prestigious title is generally considered to be a functioning society, and more importantly, the ability to record what’s going on in your lands; that’s where writing becomes pretty important. It seems weird to think that you probably learnt to write expertly by the time you were 10, yet 8000 years ago it was a brand new invention that only the cleverest Mesopotamians could do. Well it’s true, writing really was a revolution in the name of science, one we most certainly needed.
Well that’s all good stuff. Although I can see you wondering why it was Mesopotamia where all this happened, and not say… along your local woodland stream? Well that’s a very good question that has a very interesting answer. Any good economist will tell you that the more people you have, the more they can make. So if we collect together a whole lot of people in one place and get them to make lots of stuff we’re well set on our way to making a good, functional civilisation. If only it were that easy, because of course, the more people there are, the more they consume! All these people need somewhere to live, fresh water, and of course: food! Food availability is definitely one of the deciding factors as to where people choose to settle. Why are there no people living in the Sahara desert? Because you can’t grow stuff there (and it’s probably a bit too hot). Well as it turns out, rivers are a great resource for growing food with. When they flood (which they often do) they turn normal dry grassland into wet, fertile floodplains, perfect for farming. In fact, many of the more forward-thinking Mesopotamians even dug artificial ditches leading from the Tigris-Euphrates river system out into their fields, the first irrigation systems! These ditches and canals were designed such that the farmers could control the flow of water from the rivers into their fields, allowing watering of their crops in drier times, and preventing flooding in times of plenty. This wonderful section of land, perfectly placed between two rivers became an excellent place to farm, generating lots of food, and therefore, lots of people. These irrigation systems became vital to the survival of cities, and many of the famous Mesopotamian cities were founded along the banks of these rivers. Babylon, Ur and Uruk were founded along the tributaries of the Euphrates and Assur, the jewel of the Neo-Assyrian empire, along the banks of the Tigris.
This gives Mesopotamia another of its historic titles; along with parts of Egypt it became known to modern historians as the ‘fertile crescent’. The biologist in me is just bursting to tell you all about how important the crops they introduced are as well. These new farmers had lots of land and lots of water, but they needed something to grow, of which they found plenty to choose from, some of which led to the crops that we still grow today! Cereals like the wheat precursors (Emmer and Einkorn) and barley; pulses like lentils, peas and chickpeas; as well as flax, used not only for food but for its tough fibres that made wonderful fabrics. As well as irrigation, the rivers provided all sorts of useful things: fish for food, building materials from the clay and sediment, and reeds. This all sounds lovely, but don’t get me wrong, the rivers had their drawbacks as well. Mesopotamian weather was notoriously unpredictable and sometimes floods could destroy farms or even damage cities, the flood defences were most assuredly not as well engineered as those you might find in modern cities.
So, to complete our checklist of why this particular river system is important:
☑ Provided fresh water and fertile land for the first farmers, establishing Mesopotamia as part of the ‘fertile crescent’ and generating the first candidates for crop development.
☑ Allowed for the construction of large city states and small kingdoms that later encouraged key scientific and cultural developments.
☑ Basically lead to the dawn of western civilisation and is the reason that the world is how it is today, hence the title ‘cradle of civilisation’.
Well, that seems like a pretty good reason for these rivers to lead us off on our journey of the greatest, most culturally and economically important rivers in the World. If you would like further information on any of the things discussed here, please email me under the contact info, or, as I would encourage you to do anyway, go and investigate for yourselves!
Thank you for joining us for the first edition of MR CANNON’S ‘A TALE OF (MORE THAN) TWO RIVERS’. Please come back soon for our next installment!