Mesopotamia
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Mesopotamia
Earliest Cultures
The Proto-Literate and Early Dynastic Phases
During the next period (called the proto-literate phase) the south was the important region, and the transformation of the village culture into an urban civilization took place. Uruk (modern Tall al Warka), the foremost site at the beginning of this period, has yielded such monumental architecture as the temple of Inanna and the ziggurat of Anu. Also found at Uruk were tablets including the earliest pictographic writing. At the same time and apparently independently, smaller organized settlements arose at sites such as Tell Hamoukar and Tell Brak in NE Syria and Hacinebi and Arslantepe in SE Turkey.
The early dynastic phase that followed saw the development of city-states all over the Middle East as far as N Syria, N Mesopotamia, and probably Elam. The famous sites of this period are Tell Asmar, Kafaje, Ur, Kish, Mari, Farah, and Telloh (Lagash). The Sumerians (see Sumer), the inhabitants of these city-states of S Mesopotamia, were unified at Nippur, where they gathered together to worship Enlil, the wind god. The famous first dynasty of Ur came at the end of the early dynastic period.
Dynasties and Empires
The Region in Modern Times
Bibliography
See H. Frankfort, The Birth of Civilization in the Near East (1951, repr. 1968); S. N. Kramer, Cradle of Civilization (1967); D. Oates, Studies in the Ancient History of Northern Iraq (1968); L. Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia (1968); H. J. Nissen and P. Heine, From Mesopotamia to Iraq: A Concise History (2009).
Mesopotamia
(Entre Ráos), a natural region in Argentina (Corrientes and Entre Ríos provinces) in the interfluve of the Paraná and Uruguay rivers.
Northern Mesopotamia is a flat lowland with ancient channel swells between swamps and lakes. The central and southern areas consist of a well-drained plain (elevation, 90-110 m) with light park forests (palms, acacias, quebracho, species of Prosopis, and other low trees), with tall cereal herbage or savanna on reddish chernozem-like soils. The climate is subtropical and consistently humid (precipitation, 1,000-1,500 mm per year). The average January temperature is 24°-27°C and the average July temperature, from 10° to 18°C. Mesopotamia is Argentina’s primary region for growing and harvesting mate and citrus fruit; rice, tobacco, and tea are also grown. Meat and dairy animals are raised in the south. Mesopotamia is a main area for the timber and paper-and-pulp industries. Posadas and Corrientes are the chief economic centers.
Mesopotamia
a natural region in western Asia in the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It includes the Mesopotamian Depression and the Jazira Plateau.
Mesopotamia was one of the most important centers of civilization in the ancient East, which originally developed on the basis of artificial irrigation in the lower reaches of the Euphrates (the waters of the Tigris later also came to be used for irrigation). In the fourth and third millennia B.C., early class societies formed in Mesopotamia. By the end of the third millennium B.C., Akkad, Ur, and other ancient states existed here. In the beginning of the second millennium B.C., the state of Babylonia formed in southern Mesopotamia. Subsequently, the region was part of Assyria (ninth to seventh centuries B.C.), the New Babylonian Empire (seventh and sixth centuries B.C.), the Achaemenid state (sixth to fourth centuries B.C.), the empire of Alexander the Great (fourth century B.C.), the Seleucid state (fourth to second centuries B.C.), Parthia (third century B.C. to third century A.D.), the Sassanid state (third to seventh centuries), and the Arabian Caliphate, beginning with the seventh century.
In the 11th century, Mesopotamia was conquered by the Seljuks, and in the 13th by the Mongols. It came under Safawid power in the early 16th century and formed part of the Ottoman Empire from the 17th century to 1918. After World War I most of Mesopotamia became part of Iraq, and the remainder part of Syria and Turkey.