Zargon foothills, an ideal place to farm.
In the hills
- People began farming in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains in Northern Mesopotamia
- Mild weather and its many rains made it a good farming place
- Wood provided shelter
- Plenty of stone to make tools
- These conditions allowed Mesopotamia to grow
- 5000 B.C.E. farmers didn't have enough land to grow crops because of increased population
- Villages began to suffer from loss of food
- In the foothills to the south, the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers ran through flat plains
- No one lived in the plains; the plains lacked stone and wood for shelter
- Most of the year, the land was hard and dry
- In the spring, rivers flooded, bringing water
- Driven by the need of food, people moved from the foothills to the plains
- The region became known as Sumer, and the people that lived there were the Sumerians