The people known to history as the Phoenicians occupied a narrow tract of land along the coast of modern Syria, Lebanon and northern Israel. They are famed for their commercial and maritime prowess and are recognised as having established harbours, trading posts and settlements throughout the Mediterranean basin.
By roughly 6000 to 8000 years ago, agriculture was well under way in several regions including Ancient Egypt, around the Nile River; the Indus Valley civilization; Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; and Ancient China, along the Yellow and Yangtze rivers. This is because the regular river floods made for fertile soil around the banks and the rivers could also supply fresh water to irrigate crops. Itâs no coincidence that as agriculture allowed for denser and denser populations along with more specialized societies, some of the worldâs first civilizations developed in these areas as well.
Mesopotamiaâmainly modern-day Iraq and Kuwaitâin particular is often referred to as the cradle of civilization because some of the most influential early city-states and empires first emerged thereâalthough itâs not the only place! Its modern name comes from the Greek for middleâmesosâand riverâpotamosâand literally means a âcountry between two rivers.â Those two rivers are the Tigris and Euphrates. Not only was Mesopotamia one of the first places to develop agriculture, it was also at the crossroads of the Egyptian and the Indus Valley civilizations. This made it a melting pot of languages and cultures that stimulated a lasting impact on writing, technology, language, trade, religion, and law.
Associated with Mesopotamia are ancient cultures like the Sumerians, Assyrians, Akkadians, and Babylonians. Learning about this time period can be a little confusing because these cultures interacted with and ruled over each other over the course of several thousand years. These terms can also be associated with city-states, languages, religions, or empiresâdepending on the time and context we are looking at.
Explanation: