6. What effect did population growth have on the environment?

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As populations expanded, mankind had begun to make its mark including cutting down forests and clearing brushwood to create a barren landscape of Eastern Anatolia and Kurdistan of today. The soil eroded and washed into the rivers. The pressure of increasing population no doubt had an effect on the land, opening it up, and allowing large groups of people to venture into the south. The challenge for any population attempting to dwell in a southern floodplain, where rainfall is extremely low, was to manage the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to supply year-round water for farming and drinking.

Sources:

Manual Page 94

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Sumerian_Civilization

Image: https://ant3145indusvalley.wikispaces.com/Trade+and+Economics+in+the+Indus+Valley

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Eleanor Devetski