Hilly Flanks
The Hilly Flanks are the upland areas surrounding the Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia, including the foothills of the Zagros Mountains, the Taurus Mountains, and the highland parts of the Levant.[1][2]
The term was coined by Robert Braidwood in 1948. He proposed that the Neolithic Revolution began in the Hilly Flanks because these areas received enough rainfall for agriculture without irrigation. He also observed that many of the wild progenitors of domesticated crops had their natural habitats in the Hilly Flanks, as did wild sheep and goat.[1] His theory was in opposition to the oasis theory of V. Gordon Childe, which placed the origins of agriculture in well-watered desert refugia such as Mesopotamia.[3] Ultimately, archaeological investigations proved Braidwood correct.[1]
The region has been the subject of numerous archaeological expeditions intending to discover more about its historical culture. One such archaeological investigation by the Danish Archaeological Expedition to Iraq (DAEI) aimed to investigate the early urbanism in the upper regions of Mesopotamia.[4] Previous survey work done in the Rania Plain, a region in the Hilly Flanks, has recorded settlement history dating back to the Late Chalcolithic Period.[4]
See also[]
References[]
- ^ a b c Hirst, K. Kris. "What are the Hilly Flanks in Agriculture?". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
- ^ Morris, Ian (2010). Why the West Rules—For Now. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0374290023.
- ^ Hirst, K. Kris. "What Is the Oasis Theory?". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
- ^ a b Kopanias, K.; MacGinnis, J. (2016). The archaeology of the kurdistan region of iraq and adjacent regions. Archaeopress. pp. 411–415.
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