The Fertile Crescent
Mesopotamia's soil was uniquely fertile, which gave humans reason to settle in the region and begin farming. As early as 5,800 B.C.E., people were living in the area known as the "Fertile Crescent" to take advantage of the rich soil. The soil's richness came from runoff from nearby mountains, which regularly deposited nutritious silt onto the river floodplain. This region stretched from modern-day Kuwait and Iraq northward to Turkey. Before the settlement of Mesopotamia, neolithic humans were largely hunters and gatherers who did sporadic farming. Mesopotamia's unique fertility allowed humans to settle in one place to farm.