Final answer:
Agriculture was first practiced in Mesopotamia during the Neolithic period, around 10,000 BCE, within the region known as the Fertile Crescent, which includes modern-day Iraq, Turkey, and the Levant.
Step-by-step explanation:
Agriculture in Mesopotamia first began during the Neolithic period, specifically around 10,000 BCE. This was the time when wheat was first domesticated in the northern regions of Iraq, and parts of what are today southeastern Turkey and western Iran, an area commonly referred to as the Fertile Crescent.
This region not only includes Mesopotamia but also southern Anatolia, the Levant, and the earliest sites of agriculture emerged here, eventually leading to the development of those first Neolithic cities such as Jericho and Çatalhöyük, which had populations as high as six thousand.
As agriculture produced larger surpluses, populations and villages grew into towns and then cities, with Uruk emerging around 7,000 years ago as the first large urban center. Over time, Mesopotamia witnessed the rise of the Sumerian civilization, and by around 4500 BCE, several urban centers had grown significantly.
The true urban society, with a collection of city-states, was established closer to 3000 BCE, managing resources and trade depicted as the beginning of the first true economies and organized societies with centralized governments and writing systems in the Neolithic age.
The complete question is: In this chapter, you learned about agriculture in Mesopotamia. During what period of prehistory was agriculture first practiced? is: