Tigris-Euphrates river system

▪ river system, Asia

Introduction

 great river system of Southwest Asia, comprising the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which have their sources within 50 miles (80 km) of each other in eastern Turkey and travel southeast through northern Syria and Iraq to the head of the Persian Gulf. The lower portion of the region that they define, known as Mesopotamia (Greek: “Land Between the Rivers”), was one of the cradles of civilization. The total length of the Euphrates (Sumerian: Buranun; Akkadian: Purattu; biblical: Perath; Arabic: Al-Furāt; Turkish: Fırat) is about 1,740 miles (2,800 km). The Tigris (Sumerian: Idigna; Akkadian: Idiklat; biblical: Hiddekel; Arabic: Dijlah; Turkish: Dicle) is about 1,180 miles (1,900 km) in length.

      The rivers usually are discussed in three parts: their upper courses, restricted to the valleys and gorges of eastern Anatolia, through which the rivers descend from their sources, lying 6,000 to 10,000 feet (1,800 to 3,000 metres) above sea level; their middle courses, in the uplands of northern Syria and Iraq, at elevations varying from 1,200 feet (370 metres) at the foot of the so-called Kurdish Escarpment to 170 feet (50 metres) where the rivers empty onto the plain of central Iraq; and their lower courses across this alluvial plain, which both rivers have created jointly. At Al-Qurnah the rivers join to form the Shatt al-Arab (Arab, Shaṭṭ Al-ʿ).

Physical features

General considerations

      Having risen in close proximity, the Tigris and Euphrates diverge sharply in their upper courses, to a maximum distance of some 250 miles (400 km) apart near the Turkish-Syrian border. Their middle courses gradually approach each other, bounding a triangle of mainly barren limestone desert known as Al-Jazīrah (Arabic: “The Island”). There the rivers have cut deep and permanent beds in the rock, so that their courses have undergone only minor changes since prehistoric times. Along the northeastern edge of Al-Jazīrah, the Tigris drains the rain-fed heart of ancient Assyria, while along the southwestern limit the Euphrates crosses true desert.

      On the alluvial plain, south of Sāmarrāʾ and Al-Ramādī (Ramādī, Al-), both rivers have undergone major shifts throughout the millennia, some as a consequence of human intervention. The 7,000 years of irrigation (irrigation and drainage) farming on the alluvium have created a complex landscape of natural levees, fossil meanders, abandoned canal systems, and thousands of ancient settlement sites. The location of tells (tell), or raised mounds—under which are found the ruins of towns and cities of ancient Babylonia and Sumeria—often bears no relation to modern watercourses. In the vicinity of Al-Fallūjah and the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, the distance separating the rivers is some 30 miles (50 km), so small that, prior to its damming, floodwaters (flood) from the Euphrates often reached the capital on the Tigris. During the Sāsānian (Mesopotamia, history of) period (3rd century AD), an elaborate feat of engineering linked the two rivers along this narrow neck by five navigable canals (the Īsā, Ṣarṣar, Malik, Kūthā, and Shaṭṭ al-Nīl canals), allowing Euphrates water to empty into the Tigris.

      South of Baghdad the rivers exhibit strongly contrasting characteristics. The Tigris, especially after its confluence with the silt-laden Diyālá (Diyālā River), carries a greater volume than the Euphrates; cuts into the alluvium; forms tortuous meanders; and, even in modern times, has been subject to great floods and consequent natural levee building. Only below Al-Kūt (Kūt, Al-) does the Tigris ride high enough over the plain to permit tapping for flow irrigation. The Euphrates, by contrast, builds its bed at a level considerably above the alluvial plain and has been used throughout history as the main source of Mesopotamian irrigation.

      The Gharrāf River, now a branch of the Tigris but in ancient times the main bed of that river, joins the Euphrates below Al-Nāṣiriyyah (Nāṣiriyyah, Al-). In the southern alluvial plain, both rivers flow through marshes, and the Euphrates flows through Lake Al-Ḥammār (Ḥammār, Lake), an open stretch of water. Finally, the Euphrates and Tigris join and flow as the Shatt al-Arab to the Persian Gulf.

Physiography of the Euphrates

      The headwaters of the Euphrates are the Murat (Murat River) and the Karasu rivers in the Armenian Highland of northeastern Turkey. Considerably altered in the 20th century by water-control projects, they join to form the Euphrates at Keban, near Elazığ, where the Keban Dam, completed in 1974, spans a deep gorge. The river breaks through the Taurus Mountains and descends to the high plain of southeastern Turkey (site of the ancient kingdom of Commagene) through the Karakaya and Atatürk dams, both built in the 1980s. The Atatürk Dam (Ataturk Dam) feeds a massive irrigation project. After flowing southwest to a point only 100 miles (160 km) east of the Mediterranean, the Euphrates bends south and southeast into a relatively barren part of Syria, where the cultivable floodplain is no more than a few miles wide. The Euphrates Dam (completed in 1973) impounds a large reservoir, Lake Al-Asad, above the city of Al-Thawrah (Ṭabaqah). Below the dam, the reduced flow is supplemented by the Balīkh and the Khābūr (Khābūr River) rivers. Ample rainfall in the northern reaches of both these tributaries allowed the creation of major cities in ancient times and now supports intensive agriculture.

      From its confluence with the Khābūr down to Abū Kamāl, the Euphrates flows through a broad agricultural province. Below the border with Iraq, the river once again narrows to an alluvial strip between limestone escarpments. The reservoir formed by the Ḥadīthah Dam submerged the ancient town of ʿĀnah and dozens of smaller settlements, as well as a major part of the agricultural base of the middle Euphrates. Below Hīt, the river begins to widen and irrigation increases.

      Just south of the river below Al-Ramādī lie Lakes Al-Ḥabbāniyyah (Ḥabbānīyah, Hawr al-) and Al-Milḥ, both of which are large depressions into which excess Euphrates water is diverted by controlled escape. A canal links Lake Al-Ḥabbāniyyah to Lake Al-Tharthār north of the river, which in turn draws overflow from the Tigris by canal. Between Al-Ramādī and Al-Hindiyyah—a distance of about 140 miles (225 km)—are the mouths of all the main controlled-irrigation canals, as well as most of the pumping installations. Near Al-Hindiyyah the river splits into two branches, Al-Ḥillah and Al-Hindiyyah, each of which, over the centuries, alternately has carried the main flow of the river. A barrage (a low dam for diverting water) at Al-Hindiyyah that collapsed in the late 19th century was replaced in 1908 by the present device. The Al-Hindiyyah branch has been the main channel for several years. The Al-Ḥillah branch, which divides into numerous canals, has been extended, permitting cultivation in desert areas to the east and south. Below Al-Kifl, Al-Hindiyyah, which previously was uncontrollable and tended to dissipate itself in marshes, has been regulated and now supports large-scale rice production. Below Al-Nāṣiriyyah the river flows into marshes and then joins the Tigris at Al-Qurnah to form the Shatt al-Arab. Several major irrigation, drainage, and desalinization projects were halted by the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, the Persian Gulf War (1990–91), and the subsequent trade embargo on Iraq during the 1990s.

Physiography of the Tigris

      The Tigris, rising in Lake Hazar (a small mountain lake southeast of Elazığ) and fed by a number of small tributaries, drains a wide area of eastern Turkey. After flowing beneath the impressive basalt walls that surround Diyarbakır, it forms the border between Turkey and Syria below Cizre, and receives the waters of the eastern Khābūr at the border with Iraq a few miles beyond at Faysh Khābūr. Much of the river valley immediately above Mosul is now a reservoir, contributing to a large irrigation project in the Tall ʿAfar-Sinjār region.

      On its left bank, near Mosul, the Tigris passes the ruins of two of the three capitals of ancient Assyria, Nineveh (Nīnawā) and Calah (modern Nimrūd). The ruins of the third capital, Ashur (modern Al-Sharqāṭ), overlook the river from the right bank farther downstream, between the left-bank junctions with the Great Zab and Little Zab rivers. During flood time, in March and April, the two Zabs double the volume of the Tigris, but their flow is controlled by the Bakhma and Dukān dams. The rapids of Al-Fatḥah Gorge impede navigation.

      The Tigris reaches the alluvial plain near Sāmarrāʾ, the capital of a great empire during the ʿAbbāsid period (Iraq) (750–1258). A barrage and a regulated escape along this reach constitute the principal modern controls on the river; excess water can be let into the Lake Al-Tharthār depression to the west and from there into Lake Al-Ḥabbāniyyah (Ḥabbānīyah, Hawr al-) across the Euphrates. A feed from Lake Al-Tharthār back into the Tigris also has been constructed. Below Sāmarrāʾ, the river receives the ʿUẓaym River.

      In Baghdad and its environs, artificial embankments line the Tigris. Embankments also protect districts occasionally threatened by the Euphrates and the Diyālá River, which joins the Tigris just below the capital. A number of dams have restored the Diyālá to its historical role as a source of irrigation for the region east of Baghdad. At Al-Kūt, some 200 miles (320 km) downstream from Baghdad, there is a barrage, and the channel of the Gharrāf River branches off southward. The Gharrāf was, in ancient times, the main course of the Tigris and is today the source of considerable flow irrigation before it empties into the marshes and joins the Euphrates below Al-Nāṣiriyyah. The present-day major branch, Al-Aʿmā, feeds several channels that disperse their water over rice-growing areas and extensive marshes on either bank.

      At Al-Qurnah, the principal channel joins the Euphrates, fed by the outflow of these same marshlands, to form the Shatt al-Arab (Arab, Shaṭṭ Al-ʿ). At Qarmat ʿAlī, a little above Baṣrah (Basra), the main stream receives more waters from the Euphrates that have filtered through Lake Al-Ḥammār. The Tigris and Euphrates, greatly reduced by irrigation, seepage, and evaporation, contribute only a small portion of al-Arab's waters. Most of its flow derives instead from Iran's longest river, the Kārūn (Kārūn River), which enters at Khorramshahr. The Karkheh is a minor left-bank tributary from Iran. The agricultural belt along the Shatt al-Arab, no more than 3 miles (5 km) wide on either side, is the richest area of date palm cultivation in the world. Irrigation occurs when high tide in the Persian Gulf forces the fresh water of the river to back up and overflow into creek beds.

      Because the lower Shatt al-Arab forms a portion of the Iraq-Iran border, Iraq's dependence on the river as its only access to the sea has been an issue of strategic importance to both countries. The vulnerability of the minor Iraqi port at Al-Fāw, at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab, was made clear by Iran's capture of the city during the Iran-Iraq War. After that war, Iraq began cutting a channel to the gulf from Al-Zubayr, west of the main port of Baṣrah (Basra). It has been argued that the Persian Gulf War was brought on partly by Iraq's desire to use the Kuwaiti islands of Būbiyān and Al-Warbah in the gulf as the off-loading points for this new channel.

Hydrology

      The regime of the Tigris and Euphrates depends heavily upon winter rains and spring snowmelt in the Taurus and Zagros Mountains. The Euphrates traverses a considerably greater distance than the Tigris from its mountain basin to the point where it meets the Mesopotamian alluvial plain at Al-Ramādī in Iraq. On its long, gently sloping route through Syria and northern Iraq, the Euphrates loses much of its velocity and receives only two tributaries, the Balīkh and the (western) Khābūr, both of them spring-fed and entering from the left. The rate of evaporation on the river has increased to as much as 50 percent with the creation of large reservoirs and related irrigation areas behind a number of dams. The Tigris, in contrast, flows down the edge of a long, multichanneled catchment basin and is fed by four strong tributaries, the Great Zab, Little Zab, ʿUẓaym, and Diyālá rivers, all of which derive their water mainly from snowmelt in Turkish, Iranian, and Iraqi Kurdistan. The precipitous flow of its tributaries makes the Tigris more susceptible than the Euphrates to short-term flooding, and its short length brings its annual flood period a month earlier.

      As it reaches the Mesopotamian alluvial plain above Sāmarrāʾ, the Tigris is a bigger, faster, more silt-laden, and more unpredictable river than the Euphrates at the corresponding point, Al-Fallūjah. This character is expressed in the Arabic name Dijlah, meaning “Arrow.” The mean annual discharge of the Tigris, before control by modern dams, was estimated at 43,800 cubic feet (1,240 cubic metres) per second, and the silt load at approximately one ton per second. These estimates are roughly twice those calculated for the Euphrates. In flood time the two rivers together carry as much as three million tons of eroded material from the highlands in a single day. Some 90 percent of the water and silt that pass Baghdad and Al-Ramādī, however, never reaches the gulf; the water either evaporates or is absorbed in the extensive irrigated areas and marshes, and the silt settles upstream from the Shatt al-Arab. The water and sediments in the Shatt al-Arab derive mainly from the left-bank tributaries, the Karkheh and Kārūn, which rise in Iran.

Climate

      The Tigris and Euphrates make habitable and productive one of the harshest environments in the world. The region has a continental subtropical climate, with average temperatures greater than 90 °F (32 °C) in summer and less than 50 °F (10 °C) in winter, as well as great diurnal variations. Precipitation is light in the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates but increases considerably at higher elevations in their source areas. In the higher elevations, where the rivers have their upper courses, winter winds are light and variable. Much of the precipitation falls as snow, which can lie in some places for half the year. During winter, the mean temperature in the mountains is well below freezing, so that agriculture comes to a halt and communications are restricted. With the melting of the snow in spring, the rivers' volume increases. The mounting flow is augmented in their middle courses by seasonal rainfall, which reaches its peak between March and May. In the lower courses of the rivers in the alluvial plain, rain can be torrential in winter but usually does not exceed 8 inches (200 mm) per year. Rain is a welcome supplement to irrigation, which since ancient times has made possible the region's legendary agricultural richness.

      On the Mesopotamian plain, the most characteristic climatic feature is the extreme heat of the summer, with daytime temperatures rising as high as 140 °F (60 °C). Often, there are drops of 40 °F (22 °C) from day to night. Humidity in most areas is as low as 15 percent. Dust storms, which occur throughout the year, are especially frequent in the summer. Most wind-borne dust consists of particles of clay and silt mixed with minute fragments of shell, which are from a remnant dune belt that has been formed from abandoned irrigated fields and dried-up marshes in the area between the two rivers. Only occasionally are there true sandstorms, bearing material from the western desert.

Plant life

      In ancient times, oak, pistachio, and ash forests covered the mountains and foothills through which the upper Tigris and Euphrates pass. New plantings, particularly in Turkey, supplement the scattered remnants of these forests today. In the steppe zone to the south of the mountains, some vegetation can flourish year-round, but the growing season in most nonirrigated areas is quite brief; the wildflowers and other plants that appear in spring die off in the heat of May and June. In the driest zones, camel thorn and prosopis are the dominant shrubs. The densest communities of plants exist along the rivers and in the marshes. Various reeds and the narrow-leaved cattail are abundant, and the giant mardi reed, which reaches a height of up to 25 feet (8 metres), has been used as a versatile construction material since antiquity. The Euphrates poplar and a species of willow grow in small belts beside the rivers and canals; the poplar provides strong timber for construction and boat building, as well as handles for tools. The date palm is indigenous to the region. Five-stamen tamarisk and mesquite form thickets along the lower and middle courses of the Tigris and its tributaries, up to an elevation of about 3,300 feet (1,000 metres). Licorice is sufficiently plentiful to allow exports.

Animal life

 Wild pigs are common in the marshes and have spread into newly planted eucalyptus groves in other parts of the alluvial plain. Jackals, hyenas, and mongooses are found along the rivers in southern Iraq, and a large variety of Indian jungle cat reportedly still inhabits remote tamarisk thickets. Lions were last sighted along the Tigris in 1926. Foxes, wolves, and gazelles are common in the alluvial plain, and some of these range as far north as central Anatolia. Among the smaller animals are several species of gerbil, the jerboa (desert rat), hares, shrews, bats, the hedgehog, the river otter, and the Buxton's mole rat, which covers the entrance of its riverbank burrow with a mound of clay.

      Locally resident birds include babblers, bulbuls, scrub warblers, sand grouse, crows, owls, a variety of hawks, falcons, eagles, and vultures. In spring and fall, many birds migrating between Europe and Asia—such as pelicans, storks, and various geese—fly along the rivers' courses, and the marshes provide a breeding ground for some migratory species.

      There are several kinds of viper and a small cobra, as well as a variety of nonvenomous snakes. Lizards can reach lengths of nearly two feet. Frogs, toads, and turtles abound in the rivers and marshes. Members of the carp family are the dominant freshwater fish of the Tigris-Euphrates system. Barbels weighing as much as 300 pounds (135 kg) have been recorded. There are several varieties of catfish, as well as the spiny eel. Some saltwater species—including anchovy, gar, and sea bream—range upriver at least as far as Baṣrah, and the Ganges shark has been known to reach Baghdad.

People

      The lower courses of the Tigris and Euphrates are populated mainly by Arabs (Arab), while Kurds (Kurd) and Turks dominate the rivers' upper basins. Although predominantly Sunni Muslim, the people of the area include Shīʿite Muslims (concentrated in southern Iraq), Christians, Jews, and others.

      Outside the cities and towns, the Arab population on the rivers' banks practice stock breeding or agriculture. The way of life varies from the nomadism of the desert Bedouin to the settled condition of the villagers (fellahin) in the agricultural districts. The traditional pattern of village life among the fellahin in Iraq suffered severe disruptions, from both general societal forces and protracted warfare, during the second half of the 20th century. Even the formerly isolated Maʿdan, or Marsh Arabs, occupying the vast palustral triangle between Al-Nāṣiriyyah, Al-ʿAmārah, and Baṣrah, increasingly were displaced as upstream damming diminished the marshlands.

      North of Al-Fatḥah Gorge, the Tigris and its tributaries pass through country in which Arabs are a minority. For centuries, the plains of northern Iraq furnished winter pasture for Kurdish and Arab tribes. In the early 17th century, the Ottoman sultan Murad IV settled Turkmen in the region in an effort to secure his communications with Baghdad. The majority of Kurds receded into the Assyrian plain and the mountains of northern Iraq, western Iran, and eastern Anatolia. The Kurds now comprise settled, seminomadic, and fully nomadic groups, often with members of the same tribe carrying on each of the subsistence strategies. Both rivers in their upper courses run through areas that are predominantly Kurdish.

Economy

      The economic life of the Tigris-Euphrates basin remains dependent on the waters of the rivers, even though oil revenues now play a dominant role in Iraq. Modern water-control technology has reduced the devastating effects of the flood-and-drought cycle, but at a cost of desiccated marshlands and decreased natural replenishment of soil nutrients. The rivers have two flood periods: an irregular, rain-fed rise of minor proportions lasting from November to the end of March and the main snowmelt flood of April and May.

      The sheer volume of floodwater endangers the bunds (embankments) within which the rivers are confined in their lower courses. The primary requirement of river control, therefore, is to maintain an effective system of diversion and storage, both as a precaution against the kind of inundation that threatened Baghdad as recently as 1954 and as a means of retaining the floodwaters for distribution in the hot season. Damming and water diversion in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey will undoubtedly lead to future conflicts unless water-sharing schemes can be worked out.

Agriculture and irrigation

      The rivers are high at the wrong time of year for most crops (except rice), so that cultivation by direct inundation generally cannot be practiced. The initiation of massive irrigation projects in Turkey heralds unprecedented change for the piedmont area of southeastern Anatolia. Historically, the agriculture of this zone, as well as of northern Iraq and Syria, has been entirely dependent on rainfall. Some minor irrigation by means of mechanical lifts long has been practiced in northern Syria, where vines, olives, tobacco, fruits, and grains have been the mainstays. In Iraq the major field crops are wheat, barley, millet, rice, corn (maize), and sorghum. Sugar beets are grown in the area of Al-ʿAmārah. Date palms have been prized in Mesopotamia since ancient times. Modern palm groves are often interspersed with other fruit trees and vegetable gardens.

      In Iraq most of these crops depend on irrigation, which can be applied in three ways: by flow from rivers and canals through small channels, by lifting with wheels or pumps into channels, and by direct inundation. The latter method is employed in the rice-growing areas below Al-Kūt on the Tigris and around Lake Al-Ḥammār (Ḥammār, Lake). On some parts of the Tigris the diameter of traditional wheel lifts can exceed 50 feet (15 metres). The number of pumps available for use by individual farmers has increased dramatically.

      There are three kinds of canals: controlled canals, receiving water from regulators on the main river in all seasons; uncontrolled canals, taking water only when the river is in flood; and raised concrete flumes, usually requiring pumps. The principal canal systems are the following: (1) a series of left-bank Euphrates canals between Al-Ramādī and Al-Musayyib, the most important being the Al-Musayyib Drainage Project, (2) canals derived from the Al-Hindiyyah Barrage, (3) new left-bank canals south of Al-Kifl on the Hindiyyah, (4) the Tall ʿAfar region, watered by pumps from the reservoir at Eski Mosul, (5) the Diyālá canals, dependent on the Diyālá Weir and the Hamrin Dam, (6) canals and projects fed by the Al-Kūt Barrage, including the Gharrāf River Canal and the Shaṭṭ ad-Dujaylah (an old bed of the Tigris), and (7) canals and spillways from Al-ʿAmārah to Qalʿat Ṣāliḥ on the left bank of the Tigris.

      While intensive irrigation has supported Mesopotamian agriculture for thousands of years, it has caused—in combination with poor drainage—the progressive destruction of the soil through salinization. Irrigation water from the rivers, itself slightly saline, activates mineral residues in the soil, which rise to the surface through evaporation. It takes only a few years of overirrigation to lower the yield in an area, eventually leading to abandonment of fields. A simple, traditional method—alternate-year fallowing—can halt or at least retard the deterioration. One study of Sumerian records from the 3rd millennium BC has suggested that an understanding of the salinization process led to a shift from wheat to the more salt-resistant barley. Although this interpretation has been questioned, it appears certain that the ancients recognized the long-term ill effects of overirrigation.

Navigation

      The traditional vessel for downstream transportation on both rivers was the kalak—a raft of timber supported on inflated goatskins. Kalaks could carry loads of up to 35 tons, including men and donkeys, and could take as little as a few days to travel from Mosul to Baghdad. The trip from Birecik, Turkey, to Al-Fallūjah, Iraq, on the Euphrates usually lasted from 10 days to more than three weeks, depending on the condition of the river. Upon arrival the rafts were disassembled, the goods and timbers sold, and the skins deflated and loaded on donkeys for the return trip north. Traditional sailing craft still in use include muhaylahs and safīnahs that are 30 to 80 feet (9 to 24 metres) long, with a capacity of up to 50 tons. Balams are slender, double-ended, flat-bottom craft with a shallow draft. Until the 1970s gufas—huge circular coracles of basketwork, coated with bitumen and capable of carrying up to 20 passengers—were in regular use in the vicinity of Baghdad.

      In 1835 Francis Rawdon Chesney (Chesney, Francis Rawdon) of the British army hauled two paddle steamships, the Tigris and the Euphrates, overland from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, and the following year he successfully navigated the river to the Persian Gulf. This attempt to find a shorter route to India did not result in steam service on the Euphrates but did lead to regular steamship traffic between Baṣrah and Baghdad on the Tigris. Waterborne traffic above Baṣrah has been replaced, largely, by train and road transport, but shallow-draft motorized vessels, small sailing ships, and pleasure boats still use the river. The marsh dwellers of southern Iraq use a variety of motorized boats up to 50 feet (15 metres) in length, along with balams and other traditional craft.

      The ancient trade route from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean followed the right bank of the Euphrates almost as far north as Aleppo, Syria. Since 1950 Turkey, Syria, and especially Iraq have developed major road systems throughout the Tigris-Euphrates region. The Iraqi network was badly damaged, however, during the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

Study and exploration (Earth exploration)

      As one of the world's major ecosystems and a cradle of civilization, the Tigris-Euphrates system long has been a focus of scientific and historical research. A mass of data on the environment, soils, flora, fauna, land use, settlement patterns, and artifactual history of the entire region has become available through geomorphologic, hydrologic, and archaeological surveys. A full assessment of tectonic movement, sea-level oscillation, alluviation, river shifts, and long-term patterns of climatic change has been hampered by a lack of data from Iraq, although important information on some of these processes has been obtained by studying the Persian Gulf.

      Different explanations, for example, have been given for the way in which the plains were formed and the present coastline created. From about 1900, it generally was accepted that the head of the gulf once extended as far north as Baghdad and had been pushed back to its present limits by silting over the course of millennia. In 1952, geologists concluded that the present coastline at the delta was much older than previously thought and that silting had occurred in conjunction with the subsidence of basal rock beneath the Euphrates estuary. Studies of sea-level oscillations conducted in the 1970s, however, have brought this formulation into question; and the cumulative impact of human intervention—in the form of massive irrigation and subsequent abandonment of cultivated tracts—on the delta-formation processes has yet to be taken sufficiently into account.

      Pioneering surface surveys by the American geographer Robert McCormic Adams in the northern part of the alluvial plain (1956–57) and in the Diyālá region (1957–58) were followed by similar work in the Khūzestān plain of Iran (1961) and the southern alluvium (1967) and by a restudy of the central alluvium (1971–73). Other scholars have surveyed these and other areas, often in conjunction with archaeological salvage projects.

      Aerial photographs and maps can only begin to show the intricate tangle of watercourses and ancient irrigation channels present in the alluvial plain. Archaeologists, in surface surveys, are able to separate discrete systems by period, through a study of potsherds found on sites that lie along the canals. In some areas, the tells of ancient towns remain above the alluvium and allow a reconstruction of the ancient canal patterns. Through such methods, especially when combined with geomorphologic techniques, it is possible to demonstrate that at no time in the past were all areas irrigated. In fact, a key to the continuity of Mesopotamian civilization seems to have been the possibility of shifting from a salinated area to a new one simply by extending a canal into the alluvial desert. The surveys make possible the correlation of changes in settlement patterns with historical records. They also provide information on major events, such as the abandonment of large areas, presumably because of shifts in water to other Euphrates courses, that receive no mention in texts from the period. Even though the surveys cover only a fraction of the alluvium, it is possible now to lay out in general the patterns of human occupation and exploitation of the region from the first delta settlements (c. 5000 BC) to the present day. Similar assessments also can be made in specific areas on both the Tigris and Euphrates in Syria and Turkey. But work of this kind is still relatively preliminary, and improved data will allow much more sophisticated reconstructions of the adaptations humanity has made to the Tigris-Euphrates system.

Seton H.F. Lloyd McGuire Gibson Lewis Owen

Additional Reading

The Tigris is most often written about in conjunction with the Euphrates. Broad surveys of the territories affected by these two rivers include Great Britain, Naval Intelligence Division, Iraq and the Persian Gulf (1944), a geographic handbook; and Robert McC. Adams, Heartland of Cities: Surveys of Ancient Settlement and Land Use on the Central Floodplain of the Euphrates (1981). McGuire Gibson, The City and Area of Kish (1972), discusses the river systems in relation to one area of southern Iraq. M.G. Ionides, The Régime of the Rivers, Euphrates and Tigris (1937), is still a valuable pioneering hydrologic survey. Thorkild Jacobsen and Robert M. Adams, “Salt and Silt in Ancient Mesopotamian Agriculture,” in Donald R. Coates (ed.), Environmental Geomorphology and Landscape Conservation, vol. 1 (1972), pp. 138–145, is an important article relating the historical pattern of civilization collapse to ecological factors. G.M. Lees and N.L. Falcon, “The Geographical History of the Mesopotamian Plains,” Geographical Journal, 118:24–39 (1952), presents a classic formulation, which has still not been disproved, on the equilibrium between infilling of the delta and the subsidence of the basin. C.E. Larsen, “The Mesopotamian Delta Region: A Reconsideration of Lees and Falcon,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 95:43–57 (January 1975), questions the Lees and Falcon theory. A later reformulation of the article after criticisms is C.E. Larsen and G. Evans, “The Holocene Geological History of the Tigris-Euphrates-Karun Delta,” in William C. Brice (ed.), The Environmental History of the Near and Middle East Since the Last Ice Age (1978), pp. 227–244. In the same collection, C. Vita-Finzi, “Recent Alluvian History in the Catchment of the Arabo-Persian Gulf,” pp. 255–261, presents a contrasting view on the formation of the delta. A more recent contribution to this discussion is A.A.M. Aqrawi, “Implications of Sea-Level Fluctuations, Sedimentation and Neotectonics for the Evolution of the Marshlands (Ahwar) of Southern Mesopotamia,” Quaternary Proceedings, 3:21–31 (1993).Lewis Owen

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