So Karen, when I think of ancient Iraq and Iran, I picture solid sand. [LAUGH] Was it actually all desert or am I completely wrong about that? >> Yes, you're wrong about that [LAUGH] I say. >> [LAUGH] >> No, there are certain parts of the Middle East that are desert, but those are not the only physical features of the Middle East. The south of Iraq is indeed, climatically speaking, desert. But because we had these two large rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, moving through the desert zone, irrigating that desert zone, they aren't actually desert. Those are incredibly, intensively used agricultural regions, extremely productive, and have been very, very productive ever since the 4th millennium BC, so for the past 6,000 years. The north of Iraq is an entirely different region. The climate there is Mediterranean. That means that there are pronounced seasons. So cold winters with a lot of rain, then a nice spring where everything grows, a hot dry summer, and then autumn that sort of mediates the transition between the hot, hot, hot summer and the very cold winter. So that that Northern Iraqi climate is pretty similar to what you'd have in Italy, in Greece, parts of Anatolia. And it may be confusing [LAUGH] it's called Mediterranean when it's not at the Mediterranean. But it's of course part of a climatic region that starts at the eastern Mediterranean, and then moves along the Taurus Mountains that separate Turkey and Syria and Iraq from each other, and then down the Zagros Mountains that form the barrier between Iraq and Iran. The climate of Iran is largely shaped by the mountains. It's basically a series of mountain chains with high plateaus, some of them transitioned by very big rivers. And that is very far really from sort of the typical deserts that you would have in mind. But there are some remote regions that however are not very important for us when we are thinking about the Assyrian Empire. For the Assyrian Empire, Syria is another important region. And Syria does not really easily fall [LAUGH] either into this desert climate nor is it all Mediterranean in character. A large part of Syria is steppe, and the main problem is that those regions that are far away from the Euphrates River cannot really be irrigated very easily. But these regions still have a lot of promise to human endeavours because you can use them for your herds. You can graze your herds there. And that's why [LAUGH] the idea of the desert has very little to do really with the reality of living in the Assyrian Empire. It is however, of course, reinforced a lot by films that are shot in Tunisia. [LAUGH] But are supposed to take place either in Syria or in Iraq or in Iran. And that's why very, very many people have that association. >> I see, okay. Well you have talked a little bit about this already. But can you please expand a bit on this and tell me a little bit more about the weather. What was the weather like for your average everyday Assyrian? [LAUGH] >> Again, dependent entirely on where in the empire the person would be living. So if you live in what is today the south of Iraq, so in this region that is shaped basically by the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, in this intensely used agricultural zone, you wouldn't really notice much variety of weather, there wouldn't be any pronounced seasons. And that's still the case of course [LAUGH] today. Once in a while it might rain, but that would be like a freak incident because on the whole, this is a very dry climate. All the water that is available to people doesn't come down from heaven, but comes down with the big rivers. If you live in the north of Iraq which was the Assyrian heartland, as we said that's Mediterranean climate. So you would have very pronounced seasons. And therefore, you would have rainy autumns, cold winters, sometimes snow coming down even as far as modern-day Mosul. And you would have lovely springs, flowers everywhere, and very, very dry arid summers. And if you live in the steppe, you would also have seasons to a degree because the steppe is lovely and green in spring. And that's when you would move in with sheep folks. >> Yep, yeah, so it was sheep that were primarily herded on the steppes? >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. In many ways the climate shapes people's lifestyles a great deal. >> Yes, yes. All right, well, then let's talk about that a little bit. Of course, climate would have had an enormous influence. Can you talk about how it effected how people lived? >> Well, first of all, one has to stress that while by and by, the climatic conditions in the Middle East now and 3,000 years ago would not have been vastly different, yeah? There are of course, differences, yeah? There are always once in a while is a little ice age like in the 1600s. And then temperatures are cooler, and everything is basically more humid. In the time that we are interested in, so from let's say 900 to 600 BC, this would have been comparatively speaking, a cooler, more humid period, yeah? >> Okay. >> Compared to what happened before and what happened after, yeah? But on the whole, what I just said goes also for that time, yeah? However, there is the risk zone that we must mention. So the Mediterranean climate zone, as we said, we've got rains in autumn. And that's of course very, very important for agriculture, if you farm, yeah? >> Yes. >> If you don't have the rain, you are in deep trouble, yeah? So, it's very, very important to have enough rain. And basically, you need about 200 millilitres of rain a year, which isn't a great deal to reliably farm, yeah? And the boundary between the 200 millilitres and less than 200 millimetres shifts always. It's different for every year, of course. And one has to emphasise that one of the most important cities in the Assyrian Empire is the city of Assur. And that is nowadays outside of this region that enjoys 200 millilitres of rainfall, yeah? That was very, very certainly not the case in the early first millennium, for example, yeah? >> Right, yeah, so the weather pattern has really changed- >> Yes, but- >> Did you say dramatically or- >> No, not at all dramatically. >> Okay. >> But there is this risk zone. >> Yeah. >> Which sort of affects large parts of the Middle East. That risk zone is called a risk zone because this is where the 200 millilitres are either available or they're not. And basically, if you've got too little rain for two, three, four years, it makes agriculture very unprofitable. So the Middle East, in the past and to a degree even today, is shaped by the coexistence between people that farm, that do agriculture, and what we call pastoralists. People that keep herds of sheep, as we say, sheep and goat, yeah? >> Right, okay. >> And these flocks would be able, of course, to make the most of spring in the steppes, yeah? When the steppe is green for a very short period in spring, that's the time when you'd bring your animals out into the steppe. And they would be able to eat, to feast even, yeah? And so that's, in a way, how you are able to make the most of the fact that you can't always be 100% sure that agriculture will allow the whole population to flourish, yeah? So you have a mixed risk strategy. >> Right. >> The Assyrian heartland in the North of Iraq would be predominantly a farmer's world, one can say. Northeastern Syria, that would be farming as much as possible, but always heavily supplemented by income derived from the flocks, yeah? And the people that would travel with these sheep and these goats, you can't call them nomads. Because they don't have a lifestyle that is only traveling, traveling, traveling, yeah? >> Right. >> They are part of a community, but they will leave this community for several months at a time. >> In the spring season. >> In the spring season. >> Yes. >> In order to travel with their sheep and then they would come back. So that's a seasonal pattern and that's what we mean when we talk about a pastoralist lifestyle. >> Right. >> And the important thing is that this is not entirely separate from the farming lifestyle, of course, yeah? >> Yeah. >> So you'd have members of a town, let's say, or a family even that would be farming the fields. And others of that same community would leave the settlement periodically in spring and go away with the sheep. In autumn, the sheep would come back, of course, or even in late summer, and would eat basically the stubble left on the field after those had been harvested. >> So when would the slaughter happen? >> Well, obviously, before the winter. >> Yes. >> Yeah, you'd slaughter the male animals, especially, before the winter comes. Because you don't want to feed them with fodder that you've stocked unless you absolutely must. And basically, it means that most male animals would get slaughtered in autumn, after they've been fattened up over the spring into summer. And only the female animals would be left because they, of course, they will get young ones in spring. So we've got our farmers that basically lead a lifestyle that is recognisable to any farmer today, living with the seasons, bringing out to seed onto the fields in spring, waiting for everything to grow over the summer, and harvesting in autumn. Then having a sort of more restful winter and then everything starts again in spring. So the big, big, labour shortage is typically then in autumn, yeah? >> Right, yes. >> And then you also have the shepherds. They had to have sort of complementary lifestyle, of course, also very much living with the season, but invading, let's say, those parts of the land that are not at all suitable for the farmer. And then we've got the south of Iraq which is a totally different environment that is largely unaffected by natural seasons. But people still live with the same seasons as the farmers and the pastoralists. Because otherwise, it wouldn't make a lot of sense. >> This is part of one integrated world. But one thing, of course, defines that world, and that is when the rivers flood. >> Right. >> And the rivers flood when the rain comes. So the rain comes in winter, and especially then when the snow in the mountains melts. >> Yes. >> And that means that the south of Iraq is irrigated in spring, at the same time, when the farmers in the north of Iraq have done actual rain, yeah? And that's why, this is an integrated system that largely operates alongside our normal, our western pattern of seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. And one has to point out that in Egypt, for example, where we also have this big river that basically irrigates a desert landscape, the seasonal pattern is completely different. Because the flood happens at another time. The flood happens in late summer, autumn, when the monsoon rains bring water to the areas where the Nile has its springs. >> Yes. >> So that's a totally different [CROSSTALK]. >> I can see how that's quite different. Okay, I'm fascinated by a couple of things that you've mentioned so far. So I'm really interested in this idea of the risk zone. And I'm also interested in the fact that, despite the fact that sort of climatically and geographically, these areas were so different, they were still unified in certain ways. So, I'm going to ask you how would you say... did the weather affect the way people think? And how was that the same and how was that different in these different regions? >> Yeah, well, these very different environments are all connected, let's say by these two big rivers, Euphrates and Tigris. And that's why people feel that they live in an integrated world because the rivers are the most important communication routes, of course. And as we said, they do live in this yearly pattern, that despite these different regions having very different lifestyles, still bring them together. So that's quite important. So on the whole, the weather shapes everyone's world even when the weather is largely absent. >> [LAUGH] >> As is the case in the south of Iraq. And the weather in the risk zone is much more important, of course, than in the south of Iraq. In the south of Iraq, even if the rains aren't as good as they should be in autumn, you will have your flood, yeah? Because the flood is so powerful that what you have to do as a farmer when the flood comes is to protect your fields against the water. So you build dams, you have sluices, and so on and so forth. Water management, artificial irrigation, is as much about keeping the water away. >> Right, yes. >> From where you don't want it as it is about bringing the water to you where you want it to be, yeah? So even a bad year for the farmers up north would be an okay year, a perfectly normal year, for the people in the south. Up in the north however, if it rained just a little bit too little would be a huge problem. And there was really not a lot you could do apart from mitigating against that risk in the first place, which they have been doing ever since the Neolithic Revolution, when people started in the one hand to farm and on the other hand to breed animals. So that's a very clever strategy, yeah? So you basically know that there will be bad years. And that's why you basically store food and why have a mixed economy. In the south, you largely have a sort of monoculture that is very, very dependent on certain crops, although they also, of course, breed animals. In the north, this fickleness of the weather leads to the prominence of the weather god, yeah, or the storm god. >> [LAUGH] >> As he's also called. That deity is quite important everywhere in the Middle East. But sort of takes on different guises, yeah? In this risk zone, the weather god tends to be the most important deity. It's often seen as the storm god rather than a generic weather god. And is a very fickle deity, yeah, causing thunderstorms, being able to sort of make the desert bloom, but on the other hand, also causing earthquakes and god knows what. In the south, that same deity, under the same name, Adad is the name that the Assyrian have for the deity, is seen in a quite different guise, as a sort of bureaucrat, almost. He's the great canal master, so he is the one who takes care of the heavenly dams and sluices, yeah? Irrigating and preventing the water from reaching the regions where you don't want them. And so the weather in the north and in what's today's Syria and Northern Iraq is seen as something that can be benevolent, but can also be very, very damaging, can be even catastrophic. >> Right, yes. [LAUGH] Okay, well, I feel like this is an excellent time where we can stop. And this is a very nice opening to our next segment which will be about temples and religious life. >> Yes. >> [LAUGH]
