In articles on the Middle East, the expression “fertile crescent” sometimes slips, which causes bewilderment among the uninitiated. What kind of crescent is this? Why is he so fertile? Let's find out, this is interesting!
Earth crescent
The fertile crescent is a territory that they used to call the Middle East. It is called a crescent in a form that really resembles a night luminary in half phase. Regarding fertility: this famous place is considered the cradle of all world civilization, and practically the birthplace of agriculture, grain crops and bread, as well as the famous Egyptian Nile Valley. This is a terrain with very rich soil and heavy rainfall in winter.
Another name is a “golden triangle”. Often these two names are attributed to one locality, but this is wrong. Yes, both the “fertile crescent” and the “golden triangle” are the names of territories resembling these shapes in outlines. But unlike the first, the “golden triangle” is the area where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Burma connect. It is glorified by the fact that it was here that the center of production and distribution of opium was born and flourished until the 20th century. The difference in the purpose of both centers is obvious.
Geographic location
Geographically, this territory occupies the region of Saudi Arabia along the northern edge of the Syrian desert. The western region is washed by the Mediterranean Sea, the eastern abuts against the mountains of Zagros. It occupies Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Israel, parts of Jordan and Turkey. The crescent of fertile lands is the territory of ancient Mesopotamia and the Levant.
Shelter between mountain ranges, a sufficient number of rivers and marshes, rainwater, location at the crossroads from Africa to Asia - a combination of all these factors led to the fact that this area was destined to become a famous parent of husbandry, agriculture and animal husbandry.
Neolithic revolution
A very successful geographical location led to the fact that the region of the fertile crescent became the center of the Neolithic revolution. So they call the period of transition of ancient tribes from gathering to production. This did not happen suddenly and not immediately, according to someone else's plan. The process lasted for many hundreds of years, but the grandiose changes that have struck the life of mankind make it possible to call it revolutionary.
It is known that ancient tribes earned their livelihood by taking part of what was produced from nature. Hunting, fishing and collecting ready-made berries, mushrooms, seeds, and fruits brought food. Gradually emptying the territory, a reasonable person noticed that the seeds can not only be collected, but scattered especially for the next harvest. The consequences of this lesson led not only to a change in lifestyle, but to truly dramatic changes in the course of history. A productive economy is the basis of the life of the entire present world existence.
History and Agriculture
The first peoples who tried to sow and produce were precisely the tribes inhabiting the fertile crescent. History calls the main reason for these actions, a sharp change in climate after the Ice Age. It so happened that it was the territory of Mesopotamia and the Levant that remained the most fertile, while the Egyptian center of the origin of civilization was spoiled by a hot and arid climate.
Agriculture led to a settled lifestyle of the tribes, the first cities appeared. The cultivation of land and crops encouraged the creation of new tools, utensils for storage, new ways of cooking. In parallel, pottery, animal husbandry, and weaving began to develop. There were mills and ovens for baking bread. The fertile land produced the crop in excess, which could be exchanged for other necessary things. So agriculture led to the development of trade.
From agriculture to livestock
The first animals that settled next to the man were dogs. The remaining species of wild neighbors were the subject of hunting for primitive tribes, and the prospect of enjoying meat. With the development of agriculture, the cultivation of fields began to take more and more time, and they began to "harvest for future use", that is, to catch and keep in pens. New individuals began to appear in captivity.
Gradually, people began to eat milk, to use the help of animals in the work in the fields. Tamed and domesticated animals were no longer considered only as food. They began to serve people. They gradually changed their habits, instincts and even the appearance and structure of internal organs. The fertile crescent became the homeland of domestic goats, rams, bulls, horses. Even the cat, which, as you know, walked on its own for a long time, first joined the hearth in the Middle East village.
Life Grains
Why did cereals become the main crop of the fertile crescent? Wild ancestors of wheat, barley, lentils grew between forbs in vast areas of the planet. The exclusiveness of the territory of ancient Mesopotamia is that it was here that the climate and soil turned out to be the most fertile for their reproduction and cultivation by the method of sowing.
The first "tamed" cereals were wheat and barley. Their crops existed here already at the end of the 9th century BC. e. Whatever the Creator of man, he took care of decent food for him! Times and tastes change, some types of plants disappear and new ones appear, and cereals, the cultivation of which began on the “fertile crescent,” remain the most valuable food product of all time.
Cereals contain almost the entire complex of B vitamins necessary for the human body. Grain fiber helps in the fight against harmful cholesterol. Bread and cereals are products that quickly saturate the body, do no harm and contribute to the accumulation of energy. Grain is a source of magnesium, selenium, folic acid. In a word, cereals contain all the elements necessary for the healthy activity of a living organism.
Some facts about bread
There is no number of bread recipes. Different nations make it differently. There is one similarity - the basis of any bread is grain. Needless to say, the fertile crescent became the birthplace of the first baked bread.
- The first bread is more than 30 thousand years old. These were fresh crushed grain cakes baked on hot stones.
- The oldest type of bread is Middle Eastern pita.
- Yeast bread was already baked in ancient Egypt.
- In all nations, bread is given magical power and the ability to strengthen. Use it in many religious rites.
- Most bread is eaten in Turkey.
- Bread is the basis of the diet of 99% of the world's inhabitants.