The Cradle of Civilization

The beginning of civilization is built on the advancement of the Neolithic revolution. The ability to domesticate animals and produce food from agriculture supported a greater density of population. The rise in population and technology quickly outpaced the available resources of newly settled villages, thus moving them into the fertile river systems, such as that of the Nile, the Indus Valley, and, of course, The Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia. The River Valley systems are the cradle of civilization, and to know the temper of these river systems is ultimately to know the temper of the civilization built upon them.

Situated "between the two rivers" (Tigris and Euphrates), Mesopotamia is the earliest civilization that we know to have developed. Merging onto the southern banks of the two rivers, the villages quickly formed leagues and eventually dynasties to help fend off attack from Northern territories, and also to help create the social organization necessary for taming the two rivers.