Word: mesopotamia
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...that the mosque of the Moslem city was built in its final form at the time of the Sultan Saladin in 1174 A.D. Under its three entrances he found three stone slabs with carvings showing Nabonidus and the worshiped crescent moon with inscriptions in the cuneiform writing of ancient Mesopotamia. They had been placed face down for the faithful to walk on, presumably as a sign that the ancient religion was finally suppressed. Dr. Rice believes that traces of the old culture persisted until the 11th century A.D., when Islam was under attack by Christian crusaders, and Harran...
...where agriculture dawned and civilization first lit the planet is stirring again. Sudden wealth has been thrust upon the Kingdom of Iraq, carved just 35 years ago out of the Ottoman Empire's holdings in the valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates-the land once known as Mesopotamia. The oil that calked the walls of Babylon and may have fired the furnace through which Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego walked unscathed now bubbles through huge pipelines to the Mediterranean. Its flow is so fabulous that it makes Iraq (pop. 5,000,000) the world's sixth petroleum-producing...
Most ancient civilizations start from simple beginnings, e.g., those of Mesopotamia. In the lowest levels of their long-inhabited sites are found the crude implements of near-savages. Then, little by little, the culture improves. The people build better homes and temples; they learn higher crafts. At last they develop a written language and begin recording their history for archaeologists to read. Some of the new culture elements come from foreign contacts, but the origin of each imported item can generally be traced...
...perform the deeds that brought fame to the family name. Ned was fond of literature, music and machinery, but his chief passion was archaeology-a bent that led him slowly but steadily through the ruined castles and abbeys of Britain and France to the "diggings" of Mesopotamia and the Arabian desert...
...nature that changed. The land remains, the rains still fall, the rivers flow in the same measure. But under the pounding of warriors and nomads, the ancients' brilliantly intricate system of water conservation disintegrated. Hulagu Khan- and his Mongol hordes rode out of Central Asia, smashed Mesopotamia's elaborate crisscross of canals and dehydrated the Garden of Eden. The waiting Bedouin nomads advanced into the Sinai and Negeb like locusts when Roman and Byzantine authority declined. They demolished vaults, run-off canals and 300-ft. reservoirs. Their goats and camels pushed over terraces, broke fencing, ate the water...