Ortelius. A research atlas of thematic cartography
EST. MMXXVI PRIME MERIDIAN 0°00′00″  ·  EQUATOR 0°00′00″  ·  PROJECTION: ORTHOGRAPHIC 22 STUDIES INDEXED
Agricultural ·Antiquity ·Regional ·Near East & N. Africa

Wheat-Growing Intensity of the Fertile Crescent

Modelled cereal-cultivation intensity across the Fertile Crescent, rendered as contour bands.

82 records Representative survey 33.96° N · 40.66° E
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Fig. 1 Interactive distribution of the 82 geolocated records on a live carto-positron base · globe / flat projection · decimal degrees (WGS 84).
Abstract

A modelled intensity surface for cereal cultivation across the Fertile Crescent, from lower Mesopotamia along the Euphrates and Tigris to the northern Khabur and the Levantine corridor. Survey points carry a yield index that is aggregated into iso-intensity bands, exposing the arc of intensive cultivation as a continuous surface. The dataset is illustrative — generated to exercise the engine's contour cartography — rather than an excavation record.

Record
ThemeAgricultural — land use & cultivation
RegionNear East & N. Africa
Temporal rangeRepresentative survey
Geographic coverageRegional
Records82 geolocated entities
Data sourceRepresentative compilation (manual)
Centroid33.96° N · 40.66° E
Last revisedJun 2026
Provenance & sources

A representative, hand-generated dataset (not a survey corpus): cereal-intensity points are seeded around the principal alluvial and rain-fed zones of the Fertile Crescent, with a yield index assigned for cartographic illustration of contour aggregation.

Recommended citation
Ortelius Editorial Board, ed. “Wheat-Growing Intensity of the Fertile Crescent” [dataset]. Ortelius: A Research Atlas of Thematic Cartography, Study AT-037. 2026. doi:10.5281/ortelius.037
DATASET CC BY 4.0 · ENRICHMENT CC0 · CARTOGRAPHY MIT
Data & reproducibility

The published dataset is distributed as CSV with a derived GeoJSON edition; coordinates are decimal degrees on the WGS 84 datum. DOI 10.5281/ortelius.037.