MESOPOTAMIA

(GreekLand Between the Rivers) region between the Tigris and Euphrates in western Asia. In a specific sense, Mesopotamia is the northern portion of that region from Baghdad, where the rivers come closest to one another, north to the foot of the Anti-Taurus Mountains; more generally, it is the northern portion and the southern portion down to the Persian Gulf including adjacent areas eastward to the Zagros Mountains and westward to the Arabian Plateau. Mesopotamia in general terms constitutes the greater part of what is now Iraq. It was one of the cradles of human civilization. Archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia, conducted since about 1840, have revealed evidence of settlement back to about 10,000 BC. Favourable geographic circumstances allowed the peoples of Mesopotamia to pass from a hunter-gatherer culture to a culture based on husbandry, agriculture, and permanent settlements. Trade with other regions also flourished, as indicated by the presence in early burial sites of metals and precious stones not locally available. Irrigation techniques, pottery and other crafts, and building methods based on clay bricks were developed to a high level, and elaborate religious cults evolved. Two epochal developments occurred in relatively rapid succession during the 4th millennium BC: the birth of the city and, about 3000 BC, the invention of writing. Both took place in southern Mesopotamia in a region occupied by the Sumerians. Excavations of Sumerian citiesEridu, Kish, Uruk, Isin, Lagash, Ur, and othershave recovered thousands of clay tablets inscribed with the characteristic cuneiform writing of the region. The earliest tablets are inventories of goods and simple records of transactions. Later tablets are dictionaries, grammars, religious and scientific works, king lists, and literature. Many tablets record the triumphs of kings. One of those kings, Sargon of the city of Akkad, fought wars of conquest from the Mediterranean to the Zagros and ruled over history's first empire. The Akkadians were a Semitic people, and with their rise the Akkadian language became a major literary medium. Akkadian rule lasted apparently little more than two centuries. Subsequently the chief power in Mesopotamia resided in the third dynasty of Ur (c. 21122004 BC), the more or less parallel dynasties of Isin and Larsa (to c. 1763 BC), and then in Babylon, which gave its name to the southern portion of Mesopotamia. The outstanding ruler of Babylon was Hammurabi (c. 1792c. 1750 BC), who is best known for the code of laws he had inscribed on a great stela. In other areas as well the Old Babylonian Period was one of intellectual accomplishment. From about 1600 to 1450 BC Babylonian culture declined as peoples known as the Hurrians and the Kassites migrated into Mesopotamia and established themselves as rulers. Some time after 1500 BC, the Mitanni kingdom extended its rule over much of northern Mesopotamia. The language of the kingdom was Hurrian, but its rulers may have been of Aryan origin. Toward the end of the 15th century BC, the city of Ashur in northern Mesopotamia, a region that came to be known as Assyria, began its rise. By 1350 BC the Assyrian empire was well-established, and successive kings, including Adad-nirari I (c. 1295c. 1264), Shalmaneser I (c. 1263c. 1234), and Tukulti-Ninurta I (c. 1238c. 1197), conquered large areas from the Mitanni kingdom, the Kassites, and the Hittites. They achieved an uncertain dominance over much of Babylonia. Nonetheless, another Babylonian dynasty, known as the 2nd dynasty of Isin, revived the greatness of the Old Empire under Nebuchadrezzar I (c. 1119c. 1098) and others. Assyria reached new heights of power under Tiglath-pileser I (c. 1115c. 1077) and Ashurnasirpal II (883859), the latter of whom also fostered great works of architecture in his capital, Kalakh. An Assyrian usurper who took the name Tiglath-pileser III (746727 BC) laid the foundation for the vast Neo-Assyrian empire by subduing the Aramaeans who had settled much of Babylonia and then conquering Urartu, Syria, Israel, and other areas. In 729 he took the crown of Babylon for himself. The empire reached its zenith under Esarhaddon, who conquered Egypt in 671, and Ashurbanipal (668627), but its decline was remarkably rapid after that; under attack by Medes, Scythians, and Babylonians, the Assyrian empire was crushed in 609. Babylon enjoyed one last period of glory under a dynasty of Chaldeans founded by Nabopolassar (626605 BC). His son Nebuchadrezzar II (605561) is best known for his destruction of Jerusalem in 588 or 587 and his forcing of thousands of Jews into the Babylonian exile. The Neo-Babylonian empire ended in 539, when Nabonidus surrendered to Cyrus II of Persia. Under the Persians and Alexander the Great, Babylon was a rich provincial capital whose cultural influence extended far beyond Mesopotamia. The Seleucid kings, who ruled Mesopotamia from about 312 BC until the middle of the 2nd century BC, patronized Mesopotamia's temples, and the cuneiform tradition continued. The interaction of Babylonian and Greek cultures in this period after Alexander was particularly fruitful in the field of astronomy, long a Babylonian specialty. In the 2nd century BC Mesopotamia became part of the Parthian empire. It became a buffer region between the Parthians and their successors the Sasanians on one hand and the Roman Empire on the other. In the 7th century AD the region was conquered by Muslim Arabs. From that time forward the history of Mesopotamia is that of Iraq. narrow, northeast-to-southwest-oriented geographic region of northeastern Argentina, comprising Misiones, Corrientes, and Entre Ros provincias, bounded on the west by the Gran Chaco of Argentina, on the north by Paraguay, on the northeast by Brazil, and on the southeast by Uruguay. Its name, meaning between the rivers in Greek, is derived from its being between the Paran River (on the southwest to north) and the Uruguay River (on the southeast to northeast). In the northeast (or Misiones provincia) Mesopotamia consists of a southeastward extension of the Paran Plateau of Brazil covered with subtropical evergreen rain forest. Its several rivers plunge over the edges of the basalt plateau to create spectacular falls, such as Iguaz. Corrientes and Entre Ros provincias differ from Misiones in several respects. Their land surface, like that of Uruguay to the east, consists of rolling, grass-covered hillocks rising from densely wooded and marshy lowlands. The region was originally colonized by Spanish settlers returning from Asuncin, Paraguay, to refound Buenos Aires in the late 16th century; and in the 19th century many agriculturists of German, Italian, and Swiss descent settled in the region. Southern Mesopotamia is one of Argentina's leading producers of wool and flax, and cattle are raised. The production of rice and oranges centres on the city of Corrientes. Rapids, sandbars, and shifting channels in the Paran and the Uruguay rivers hinder their use as transportation arteries, necessitating transshipment of cargo to shallow-draft vessels. The highway network is fairly extensive, but roads are generally of poor quality. A rail line linking Buenos Aires and Asuncin traverses eastern Mesopotamia. The hydroelectric potential of the rivers bordering Mesopotamia was finally being realized in the early 1980s with the completion of the Salto Grande complex on the lower Uruguay and the construction of the giant Apip-Yaciret complex on the upper Paran. Pop. (1983 est.) 2,284,000.