ABSTRACT
Civilization first developed on the rich alluvial plain of lower Mesopotamia, where the flood came inopportunely in spring, to the disadvantage of sowing rather than to the advantage of growing, but water-borne transport facilitated communication, trade and the accumulation of wealth. City was ever to fight city but even more fundamental was the clash between citizen and nomad. The land of the Tigris and Euphrates seems to have been treeless well before history. In the Nile valley, the narrow floodplain, bordered not far from the river by sandstone cliffs, produced plenty of reeds which could be bound together to form posts, or woven into screens. In both Mesopotamia and Egypt the properties of the local materials dictated the approach to embellishment. The story of Mesopotamia is complicated, like the capriciousness of its two rivers in contrast with the singular determination of the Nile.
