The earliest evidence of land management and mismanagement is found in the Near East, where humans first made the transition from nomadic hunting-gethering to sedentary farming and herding of livestock. Cultivation of sloping lands caused water erosion and sedimentation, while irrigation of poorly drained river valleys caused water-logging and salinization. Examples are given of conditions and practices that made long-term land management either sustainable or unsustainable: why some early civilizations succeeded while others failed. The same age-old problems still beset soil managment in modern times as shown by examples from Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Americas.