Post #1926822

2026-04-30 14:03 UTC

@Jeroen89 I was taught that Mesopotamia was "The Fertile Crescent", and that it is in what today is Iraq and Turkey. I remember watching the news in 1991 the first time we bombed the shit out of Iraq. It didn't look very fertile to me. It looked like a desert. Same thing?

Replies (4)

@Jeroen89@mastodon-belgium.be 2026-04-30 14:08

@Uair I don't know. Although it might not look fertile, it's not uninhabitable. And the world has had multiple natural climate changes in the last 4000 years. To me that might be more of a natural change and less of a man made change.

Open ##1926823
@tkalvas@mastodontti.fi 2026-04-30 16:44

@Uair @Jeroen89 It used to be much more fertile, but, especially in the south, very irrigation driven. Thousands of years of irrigation has caused salt buildup in the soil which has made it less fertile. The change has been quite slow in human terms, but very abrupt in natural terms.

Open ##1926825
@duckwhistle@mastodon.org.uk 2026-05-02 09:43

@Uair @Jeroen89 The area was named the fertile crescent specifically for river valleys, and what they were like over 3000 years ago. The area was already becoming dryer at that time, and about 60,000 years ago the whole Arabian peninsula was a jungle. Also the war wasn't fought in the prime farming areas.

Open ##1926828
@woodenmachines@mastodon.social 2026-05-17 01:53

@Uair@autistics.life @Jeroen89@mastodon-belgium.be like the American west before the lust for beaver hats

Open ##2631864