Untitled Document

East of Eden

Many historians and archaeologists agree that within the historic boundaries of the “Fertile Crescent”, a huge swathe of land that curved upward from Palestine and descend down into Iraq and Iran following the basin formed by the Tigris and Euphrates is the most likely site of the “Garden of Eden”. There is much debate as to where a river that splits into four may have been, given the unlikelihood of such a geographical feature, although a river delta could possibly fit the bill. Certainly such a delta existed where the Tigris/Euphrates system empties into the Persian Gulf. An in this region the great civilizations of Sumeria, Assyria and Babylon evolved.
Due to the incredible fertility of this region, which some ten thousand years ago was covered in forests and cedar groves, mankind settled in this area. The migration of Homo sapiens out of Africa, as well as the descent of hunter-gatherers from the steppes to the north and east of the fertile plains, led to the first settlements and to the establishment of agriculture. The conflict of hunter-gatherers and the agrarian communities certainly would have led to fighting for power, and on this flat plain with little protection, wave after wave of invaders conquered the inhabitants, and then subsequently settled. The irony of this is that the region is still enduring armed conflict to this day, ten thousand years later!
As each wave of humans descended into the Fertile Crescent, mostly from the mountains in the Northeast, especially the Pamir, Altai and Hindukush, as well as from Kasmir and Pakistan, they would have brought with them the starchy foodstuffs available to them, mostly bulbs, for the long migrations. Amongst these bulbs would have been the flowers for a magnificent Eden, including narcissus, muscarii, hyacinths, alliums, scilla and tulips.
Many of these bulbs would have been discarded, lost and dropped along the trails or at the destination, and in the land known as Mesopotamia, or ‘The Land Between Two Rivers’, these bulbs found a perfect environment to grow. And as various bulbs from different parts of the world grew together, the first hybrid tulips were formed.
The wonderful idea of a “Garden of Eden” seems to be founded in truth, as the inhabitants of the “Fertile Crescent” came to prize these flowers, above all the tulips for their dramatic colors and shapes, and the narcissus for the fragrance.
As well as cultivating cereals and grains, establishing orchards, practicing animal husbandry, the peoples of these ancient civilizations also took the time to grow flowers for aesthetic pleasure.
And what of the “Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge”? This seems to be an allegory based on the conflict between the hunter-gatherers embodied by Adam, and the lure of a settled society embodied by the serpent, who was offering the “fruits” of agricultural labor.
And as we all know, in a highly regulated society, walking around unashamedly naked is just not on!