The story of how the first cities rose from southern Mesopotamia has long fascinated scientists and historians. Many explanations point to fertile soil, farming, and trade networks as the engines of ...

Researchers have identified an extensive Mesopotamian canal network that supplied ancient farms in the Eridu region with water from the Euphrates river before the first millennium B.C.

Researchers estimate that irrigation began as early as 6000 B.C. The Egyptians irrigated their crops from the Nile River by flooding their cropland every spring then draining the water back into the ...