The Fertile Crescent: Building Block Of Civilization

The Fertile Crescent is a place located in the Middle East where many of the world’s first civilizations begun. The Fertile Crescent had gotten its name due to the fertile soil it had, which was great for growing crops and the crescent type shape which is shown on the map! But besides fertile soil, there are many other advantages that allowed The Fertile Crescent to be the earliest site of development for most of the building blocks of civilization. In my opinion, the top three advantages were the two-way link between the rise in human population density and the rise in food production, the cumulative development of technologies and the increased availability of domesticated wild plants. In my opinion, the main and most important advantage
As farmers began to produce more foods they needed a way in which they could efficiently collect, process and store them. Overtime civilians began to invent new technologies in which they would eventually depend on. For example the text states, “The necessary methods, implements, and facilities appeared rapidly in the Fertile Crescent after 11,000 B.C having been invented for dealing with the newly available abundance of wild cereals.” This explains how with a new availability of wild cereals new technologies were invented to make the job of harvesting and processing easier in which created faster food availability for civilians along with an easier job for farmers. Another example which shows an advantage with new technologies is located in the text which states “All these techniques, though developed for the exploitation of wild cereals, were prerequisites to the planting of cereals as crops. These cumulative developments constituted the unconscious first steps of plant domestication.” This shows that with the use of new technologies new doors had opened in civilizations which includes the planting of cereals as crops and the start of plant domestication along with producing crops in a faster and more efficient time. To conclude, the second most important
For example the text states “Climate changes at the end of Pleistocene in the Fertile Crescent greatly expanded the area of habitats with wild cereals, of which huge crops could be harvesting in a short time.” This shows how climate changes in the Fertile Crescent opened up new areas of land in which crops could quickly be harvested. Another example is in the text where it states, “Just as the depletion of wild game tended to make hunting-gathering less rewarding, an increased availability of domesticable wild plants made steps leading to plant domestication more rewarding.” This means as wild game began to make hunting-gathering less rewarding an increased availability of domesticable wild plants began to make plant domestication more rewarding. In the end, the third most important advantage that had allowed the Fertile Crescent to be the earliest cite of development for the building blocks of civilization was the increased availability of domesticated wild plants because it allowed certain crops to be able to be harvested very quickly in certain climates and also the availability of domesticated plants made plant domestication more