For this essay I considered the question of what factors contributed to the emergence of city-states in Lower Mesopotamia and the influence the landscape played in the formation of the civilization which emerged. Through my research on this topic I found that there is much evidence to support the claim that landscape was a very large influence on the emergence of civilization and that most of the contributing factors were, in some way, linked to geography.

In order to fully understand the topic, I first explored what the definition of civilization is. The first criterion for civilization, that I could think of, is domestication and an agricultural economy capable of producing a stored surplus. From this, I felt the need to examine the origins of Mesopotamian agriculture.

With the glacial retreat after the last ice-age (roughly 10000 BC) the Mesopotamian climate improved and many modern plants and animals began to become concentrated in specific areas. Around 9000 BC the vast majority of Mesopotamian peoples were hunter-gatherers. With the concentrations o

In conclusion I strongly believe that because of the fertile soil in the Mesopotamian basin early domestication and agriculture was made much easier for peoples indigenous to that area and that was the defining reason as to why civilization first began in Mesopotamia. Without the soil necessary for vast plant growth, animals and people would not have stayed in that area and people would not have developed permanent housing. This would have meant that Mesopotamia would not be seen as the cradle of civilization and perhaps society as we know it would not have even evolved to what we see today.

In conjunction with geography and domestication, an argument for population pressure as a factor towards the beginnings of civilization can also be made. Population pressure occurs when the population begins to exceed the carrying capacity of the environment, given existing technology. This may have forced some nomadic tribes to begin to settle and domesticate plants and animals. However around 9000 BC the vast majority of hunter-gatherers did not have sufficient numbers to exceed the carrying capacity of the land so population pressure was probably just a minor factor.

Domestication is the process of altering plants and animals so that they are no longer bound to the natural habitats of their wild ancestors. In essence they bec

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