Final answer:
The soil in ancient Mesopotamia was renowned for its fertility, making it a cornerstone for the development of one of the world's earliest advanced civilizations, with the region's inhabitants relying on it heavily for agriculture and for making mud bricks used in construction.
Step-by-step explanation:
The soil in Mesopotamia during ancient times was extremely fertile, thanks largely to its location in the Fertile Crescent, a region known for its rich, productive land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Due to the lack of natural resources like wood and minerals, the inhabitants of Mesopotamia relied on the soil not only for agriculture but also for creating mud bricks for construction, some of which were used to build massive ziggurats. The fertile soil of Mesopotamia was an accumulation of silt deposited by the two rivers, which was extremely conducive to the growth of staple crops such as barley, sesame seeds, and dates, and was a key factor in the rise of Sumer and other civilizations in the region. The region had to develop irrigation and flood control systems to manage the water of the Tigris and Euphrates for farming and sustaining their communities, leading to one of the earliest advanced civilizations on Earth.