Fertile Crescent

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Fertile Crescent

Fertile Crescent historic region of the Middle East. A well-watered and fertile area, it arcs across the northern part of the Syrian desert. It is flanked on the west by the Mediterranean and on the east by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, and includes all or parts of Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. From antiquity this region was the site of settlements and the scene of bloody raids and invasions.

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Fertile Crescent

A Dictionary of World History | 2000 | Â© A Dictionary of World History 2000, originally published by Oxford University Press 2000. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Fertile Crescent The fertile land stretching from the Mediterranean coast of Syria, Lebanon, and Israel down the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the Persian Gulf. The expression was coined by the archaeologist James H. Breasted to describe that part of the Middle East that formed the cradle of early civilizations such as the Assyrian, Sumerian, Phoenician, Babylonian, Hittite, and Hebrew. Archaeological evidence confirms the existence of agricultural communities in the area by 8000 BC.

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

	Deserts advancing, civilization retreating. (Environmental Watch).(from Earth Policy Institute website, March 27, 2003)(Reprint) Magazine article from: The Humanist; 7/1/2003
	History of Iraq. Magazine article from: New Internationalist; 9/1/1999
	Iraq's past in present danger. (Front Page).(archaeological sites) Magazine article from: Art in America; 3/1/2003

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	UN to list Iraq's Fertile Crescent as world heritage site. Newspaper article from: Aswat al-Iraq (Erbil, Iraq); 9/6/2008; 700+ words ; ...revealed an initiative to list the Fertile Crescent as a world heritage site. Supported...according to the statement. The Fertile Crescent is believed by some to...Biblical 'Garden of Eden.' The Fertile Crescent is a crescent-shaped...
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	Correlation of annual precipitation with human Y-chromosome diversity and the emergence of Neolithic agricultural and pastoral economies in the Fertile Crescent. Magazine article from: Antiquity; 6/1/2008; ; 700+ words ; ...emergence of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent, while a complex and patchy event...chromosomes that occur frequently in the Fertile Crescent ate those belonging to...in the western sector of the Fertile Crescent (Di Giacomo et al. 2004...
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	Cat domestication started in the Fertile Crescent region: Study News Wire article from: The Hindustan Times; 1/30/2008; 665 words ; ...for the modern day domestic cat leads back to the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East. The study, led by Monika Lipinski...that the domestication of the cat started in the Fertile Crescent region. It also provides a warning for modern cat...
	Interview: Dr. Tim Foresman talks about the Fertile Crescent quickly disappearing Transcript from: NPR Morning Edition; 5/18/2001; ; 700+ words ; ...0000 Interview: Dr. Tim Foresman talks about the Fertile Crescent quickly disappearing Host: ALEX CHADWICK Time...Euphrates Rivers drain into an area known as the Fertile Crescent. The earliest-known civilizations arose 5,000...
	Interview: Dr. Tim Foresman talks about the Fertile Crescent quickly disappearing... Transcript from: NPR Morning Edition; 5/18/2001; ; 700+ words ; ...0000 Interview: Dr. Tim Foresman talks about the Fertile Crescent quickly disappearing Host: ALEX CHADWICK Time...Euphrates Rivers drain into an area known as the Fertile Crescent. The earliest-known civilizations arose 5,000...
	Agriculture: Fertile Crescent as Early Breadbasket Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 11/17/1997; ; 416 words ; ...About the only place that had a decent selection was the Fertile Crescent (in what is now Turkey and Iraq), where humans had just...agricultural societies . . . developed so much more rapidly in the crescent than in the new world."
	Beast of Eden: Saddam kills Fertile Crescent; The ecological disaster could be the most nefarious of his crimes Newspaper article from: Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque); 5/25/2003; ; 700+ words ; ...after the 1991 Gulf War, he dried up the heart of the Fertile Crescent. Satellite photos and up-close inspection reveal...what topsoil remains. The last holdout is a patch of fertile marsh with towering qasab reeds that straddles the Iraq...
	Gallery showcases ancient civilizations of 'Fertile Crescent'; The University of Chicago's Oriental Institute offers Assyrian king's version of battle Newspaper article from: Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque); 2/7/2005; ; 655 words ; ...The institute's new gallery, "Empires in the Fertile Crescent: Ancient Assyria, Anatolia and Israel," holds more...years old from the region, which was named for its crescent shape stretching from the shores of the Mediterranean...