ABSTRACT
There is no doubt that the earliest urban civilizations created severe environmental damage. The accumulation of the agricultural surpluses necessary to build cities, construct pyramids and temples, equip armies, provide regalia for priestly rulers and maintain bureaucracies led to over-farming, soil erosion and the destruction of natural habitats. Irrigation, in ancient Mesopotamia and the Indus valley, led to over-salinization as the evaporation of large bodies of water left toxic salt on formerly fertile land in ‘a Satanic mockery of snow’ (Goudie 1981:113). Huge areas of forest were removed to make way for fields of wheat. Loss of tree cover and over-enthusiastic farming practices resulted in widespread soil erosion.
