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Tate Paulette
7.1. Map of Mesopotamia. Base map provided by the Oriental Institute Map Series,
Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.
dence for hazards and hazard management before closing with a look toward
the future.
Bronze Age Mesopotamia
The ancient region known as Mesopotamia encompasses much of modern Iraq
and northeastern Syria (figure 7.1). 1 Traversed by two major rivers, the Tigris
and the Euphrates (figure 7.2), this arid land has long supported a subsistence
economy centered on cereal cultivation and the herding of sheep and goats.
Rainfall is typically meager and erratic, with a high frequency of drought years,
but impressive agricultural yields can be achieved across much of the region.
On the alluvial plains of Southern Mesopotamia, this is possible only with
the aid of irrigation, but in Northern Mesopotamia rain-fed agriculture (also
known as “dry farming”) is the norm. Today, as in the distant past, crops are
sown in October-November and are then harvested and processed for storage
in April-May (Adams 1965: 16; Postgate 1992: 167).
Throughout Mesopotamian history, settlement has been concentrated
within the two agricultural zones—Southern and Northern Mesopotamia—
but these zones are separated by a broad band of arid steppe better suited to
exploitation by mobile pastoralists. Even within the cultivated zone, the herd-
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