1 Minnesota Jones: ...and that is my thesis on why civilisation first arose in the Fertile Crescent. I couldn't leave that unrecorded for posterity.
2 Haken: Finished?
2 Minnesota Jones: Yes.
2 Haken: So are you finally prepared to die?
3 Minnesota Jones: Not actually prepared, as such...
3 Haken: No more delays!
4 Minnesota Jones: You're really not scoring very many positive points for how history will judge the Nazis here.

The Fertile Crescent is the area ranging from Mesopotamia through the Levant to Egypt and the Nile Valley. These regions are associated with the Neolithic Revolution, or the earliest conversion of human societies from hunter-gatherer bands to agricultural settlements, and the subsequent rise of the cities and political states that we use to characterise civilisation.

Exactly why this region was so blessed has long been the subject of various anthropological theories. I guess Minnesota Jones isn't merely an archaeologist.

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2016-04-27 Rerun commentary: One presumes Erwin was taking notes while Minnesota Jones was expounding on his conclusions about the Fertile Crescent. I can imagine him starting this by asking, "Are you ready? Start taking notes now."

You can notice in this comic that the colour of the light has started to shift to the reddish-orange glow of sunset. This develops and becomes more pronounced over the next few strips in this sequence, culminating in nightfall. Remember, when they started this conversation the execution was supposed to be at dawn.