MESS

Gradually developing water systems were fundamental to the development of Mesopotamian southern society in the fourth and third millennium BC, one of the cradles of human civilization. Recent scholarship suggests that these urban-based societies developed within an emerging network of irrigated areas increasing in size and number, with transport connections to move surplus yields being exploited.

Based on available ABM modelling in NetLogo with excellent results in terms of representing Mesopotamian’s irrigation systems, including decisions of farmers to expand farms and canal systems, this project studies conditions for longer-term growth of irrigated landscapes – with longer-term defined as millennia.