Was the middle east the cradle of civilisation?

Question

Sumer, Akkad, Babylon & Assyria etc,Mesopotamia present Iraq.

Answer 1

It seems writing and records appeared there first. Also they thought since they knew of no one else, there wasn't anybody but them. How smart is that?

They also thought the entire earth was a very small place, and probably flat.My opinion is that God gave them writing, so that we would all know just how silly they were.

Answer 2

It was the cradle of our civilization.  It is dubious and probably exaggerated how much it influenced other civilizations like China, the new world and others.

Answer 3

Geographically , yes. I doubt very much that the present day mid easterners are cradle to anything.

Answer 4

It was a major one...

This is where the majority of humans settled when they walked out of Africa, and around the Arabian Peninsula within the past 50,000 years...

Though Mesopotamia has flooded many times, the Ubaids were the last pre-historic peoples to inhabit this area, 7-10,000 years ago, prior to the Sumerians & Akkadians who began to record their early history, through the use of Cuneiform writing, which is the first known writing system...

They also devised the first known number system. Although it only went from 1-60, and then started over again...