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r-reading-my-comment t1_ja5asaw wrote

Reply to comment by monsantobreath in 4,500-year-old Sumerian temple dedicated to mighty thunder god discovered in Iraq. by Rifletree

Wasn’t Iraq’s seasonal rainfall dangerous and likely to cause floods? The floods brought nourishment, but also death and destruction.

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Yadobler t1_ja64pn7 wrote

If iraq was like the Asian monsoon countries, then it's the late summer / autumn rains that cause flooding. Springtime tends to be dry and rainfall is appreciated in the spring where it's getting hot

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In southern India, tamil agricultural culture have the following warning: never get married in the month of Aadi

Aadi is about mid July - mid August. Because usually newly weds will consummate on the first night, and a baby comes in end April.

End April is considered the driest weeks. It's spring, not summer, but it's not Monsoon season. Unlike the summer months where rain comes and you have a generally hot and wet season, springtime is dry and having a baby means being tight on well water - bad for the newborn and the new mother.

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Crops that tamil farmers grow, usually rice and sorghum, are usually planted in August (the same Aadi month, also why they say not to marry in Aadi because everyone's busy planting crops). The Monsoon comes and the floodplains are great for the crops that bathe in water. Then they are harvested in January, it's also when Thai pongal is celebrated to thank the weather gods and plowing bulls for the good harvest

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So if an agricultural civilisation living in a place that sees no snow is praying for springtime rainfall, it's probably 2 things:

  1. they need the water for crops that they can't plant after spring

  2. they need the water because all the wells dried up

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This is my educated guess from inductive reasoning of agricultural culture. Take it with a pinch of salt

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TheMelm t1_ja694n7 wrote

Heh you forget how differently people experience something like spring. In Alberta spring is when all the snow starts melting so you get tons of water coming in from the mountains along with rain and everything turns into a swamp. We call it spring breakup when the roads get too muddy and you can't move oil rigs and machinery for a few weeks so work stops.

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nonosnoooo t1_ja7kjqe wrote

You missed the part where they said if a bunch of people who never see snow are praying for springtime rainfall - Iraq and southern India don’t get break up lol

Break up is not just about the snow melting in some places, it’s also the frost coming out of the ground

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TheMelm t1_ja7la0x wrote

Nah I saw they knew about it the you who was forgetting wasn't them it was a general everyone. And if you really made me think about it I'm sure I'd have figured out places without snow have very different springs just not something you think about often. And yeah I know, lots of sites are winter access only for that reason they're basically a swamp when its above freezing.

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