Irrigation

As presented in the Fagan text, "we do not know anything about how the first inhabitants of the Mesopotamian floodplain acquired or developed the skills needed to survive in their harsh environment", but there is no doubt that irrigation was a very important one of these skills (Fagan 2001: 395). Irrigation is simply a way to intensify the agricultural capability of land and support, "far higher population densities" (Fagan 2001: 373). So then how would irrigation further develop civilization? For one, we know that irrigation was a reality in Mesopotamia around this time. As Robert Adams found, "early Mesopotamian irrigation consisted of cleaning natural river channels and building only a few smaller feeder canals" (Fagan 2001: 374). While the original canal systems were relatively simple compared to what would come, Fagan notes that, "digging even the smallest canal required at least a little political and social leadership" (Fagan 2001: 395). Thus due to a large core population this is likely the first time in Mesopotamia when we would see a social stratification outside of one's kin group.

Another, way that civilization would be effected from irrigation would be from its agricultural success. With irrigation and a centralized population and workforce, Mesopotamia would see surpluses for the first time. Specialized economies such as that of the 'Ubaid village would have more of a good than they could deal with, and as both Adams and Flannery point out, "the relationship between developing a stratified society and creating food surpluses is close" (Fagan 2001: 395). Surpluses were also stored and redistributed at temples in cities such as Uruk, which would require full cooperation of the entire community to keep functioning (Fagan 2001: 397). For reasons such as this, temples became a backbone of the developing Mesopotamian civilization. As surpluses would further stratify society, they would also be redistributed through another one of the forces in the development system, the expanded trade networks.

Page 1 The Development of Mesopotamia
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