What was the Fertile Crescent?

The "Fertile Crescent," often referred to as the "cradle of civilization," refers to a semi-circular area of the eastern Mediterranean region, including the valleys of the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The region includes parts of the modern countries of Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, northern Egypt, and Iraq, and the Mediterranean Sea coast lies to its west. To the south of the arc is the Arabian Desert, and at its southeast point is the Persian Gulf. Geologically, this region corresponds with the intersection of the Iranian, African, and Arabian tectonic plates.

American Egyptologist James Henry Breasted (1865–1935) of the University of Chicago is credited with popularizing the term "Fertile Crescent." In his 1916 book "Ancient Times: A History of the Early World," Breasted wrote of "the Fertile Crescent, the shores of the desert bay."

The term quickly caught on and became the accepted phrase to describe the geographic area. Most modern-day books about ancient history include references to the "Fertile Crescent."

Breasted considered the Fertile Crescent the cultivable fringe of two deserts, a sickle-shaped semi-circle wedged between the Atlas mountains of Anatolia and the Sinai desert of Arabia and the Sahara desert of Egypt. Modern maps clearly show that the fertile part incorporated the major rivers of the region, and also a long stretch of the Mediterranean Sea coastline. But the Fertile Crescent was never perceived as a single region by its Mesopotamian rulers.

Breasted, on the other hand, had a bird's eye view of the map during World War I and he saw it as a "borderland." Historian Thomas Scheffler believes Breasted's use of the phrase reflected a zeitgeist of his day. In 1916, the crescent was occupied by the Ottoman Empire, a pivotal geo-strategic piece of the battles of World War I. In Breasted's historical drama, says Scheffler, the region was the site of a struggle between "desert wanderers" and the "hardy peoples of the northern and eastern mountains," an imperialist concept, building on the Biblical battle of Abel the Farmer and Cain the Hunter.

Archaeological studies over the last century have shown that the domestication of plants like wheat and barley and animals such as sheep, goats, and pigs took place in the adjacent mountains and plains outside of the boundaries of the Fertile Crescent, not within it. Within the Fertile Crescent, there were plenty of plants and animals available to the residents without going to the trouble of taming them. That need only arose outside of the region, where resources were harder to come by.

In addition, the oldest permanent settlements are also outside of the Fertile Crescent: Çatalhöyük, for example, is located in south-central Turkey, and was founded between 7400–6200 BCE, older than any site in the Fertile Crescent, except possibly Jericho.

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