New Insights on the Role of Environmental Dynamics Shaping Southern Mesopotamia: From the Pre-Ubaid to the Early Islamic Period

Abstract

Recent fieldwork and archival sedimentary materials from southern Iraq have revealed new insights into the environment that shaped southern Mesopotamia from the pre-Ubaid (early Holocene) until the early Islamic period. These data have been combined with northern Iraqi speleothem, or stalagmite, data that have revealed relevant palaeoclimate information. The new results are investigated in light of textual sources and satellite remote sensing work. It is evident that areas south of Baghdad, and to the region of Uruk, were already potentially habitable between the eleventh and early eighth millennia B.C., suggesting there were settlements in southern Iraq prior to the Ubaid. Date palms, the earliest recorded for Iraq, are evident before 10,000 B.C., and oak trees are evident south of Baghdad in the early Holocene but disappeared after the mid-sixth millennium B.C. New climate results suggest increased aridity after the end of the fourth millennium B.C. For the third millennium B.C. to first millennium A.D., a negative relationship between grain and date palm cultivation in Nippur is evident, suggesting shifting cultivation emphasising one of these crops at any given time in parts of the city. The Shatt en-Nil was also likely used as a channel for most of Nippur's historical occupation from the third millennium B.C. to the first millennium A.D. In the early to mid-first millennium A.D., around the time of the Sasanian period, a major increase in irrigation is evident in plant remains, likely reflecting large-scale irrigation expansion in the Nippur region. The first millennium B.C. to first millennium A.D. reflects a relatively dry period with periodic increased rainfall. Sedimentary results suggest the Nahrawan, prior to it becoming a well-known canal, formed an ancient branch of the Tigris, while the region just south of Baghdad, around Dalmaj, was near or part of an ancient confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates.

Archaeobotanical Study of Tell Khamîs (Syria)

“…Levels, periods, and chronology from Matilla [12]. Paleoclimatology from [63][64][65][66][67][68][69]. The species shared by Tell Khamîs with various sites in the area show maximums in the case of Tell Qara Qûzâq and Tell es-Sweyhat.…”

Climate change and early urbanism in Southwest Asia: A review

“…Climate proxy records are poorly distributed spatially across the study region and its surroundings, with concentrations in the Levant, the upland landscapes of Turkey, Iran and the Caucasus, and the far south of the Arabian Peninsula (Figure 1). There are very few records of any type in Mesopotamia, although this is beginning to change as political stability in Iraq enables fieldwork to take place (Altaweel et al, 2019; Flohr et al, 2017; Marsh et al, 2018).…”

The paleoenvironment and depositional context of the Sumerian site of Abu Tbeirah (Nasiriyah, southern Mesopotamia, Iraq)

“…Since the beginning of archaeological research in the area (Woolley, 1962;Adams, 1965Adams, , 1981, the close connection between ancient Mesopotamian cities and the hydrology of the Tigris and Euphrates fluvial systems during the last 6000 yr has been recognized as a pivotal factor for the evolution of the Sumerian society. In particular, the surveys of the last century detected and jointly mapped settlements and water resources (also by using remote sensing techniques) and led researchers to hypothesize a close connection between fluvial dynamics of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers with their tributaries, and the abandonment or reorganization of settlement patterns (Adams, 1965(Adams, , 1981Wilkinson, 2001;Pournelle, 2003Pournelle, , 2007Morozova, 2005;Algaze, 2008;Di Giacomo and Scardozzi, 2012;Jotheri, 2018;Jotheri et al, 2018;Altaweel et al, 2019;Hammer, 2019;Jotheri and Allen, 2020). The resulting depositional context, characterized by floodplains and marshes crossed by an intricate system of natural and artificial channels, was often utilized as waterways for agricultural irrigation and secondarily for fishing and transport.…”