What about Mesopotamia?!

[PTM]

Wow, what a crazy find. I hadn't heard of this discovery.

Is it nerdy that the first thing to spring to mind was Chrono Trigger's Kingdom of Zeal? Obviously not the advanced technology and magic, but the concept of a lost ice age -esque civilization. Interesting, to say the least.

 

[Takeda]

As I'd rather have Scandinavia than Vikings and I'd rather have Turks than Ottomans, I'd prefer simply "Mesopotamia" to specifically Babylon or Sumer, not identifying with a specific state (or group of city states) gives a timeless aspect to the Civ you're playing (and we mustn't confuse timeless Civilizations with the comparatively short lived States that ruled them).

How does that make any sense? That would be like having a civilization called "Oceania" or "The Balkans" or "Southeast Asia"

 

[Louis XXIV]

Well, there was a Mesopotamian culture and religion. One could argue that a Mesopotamian civ would be similar to a Greek civ instead of an Athenian civ (and the various Empires in Mesopotamia would be similar to the Leagues or Diodichi in Greece and still fall under one civ). I don't entirely buy it, but it's not a terrible idea (I'd rather just make it less vague, but have them represent more, like the Iroquois representing Native Americans rather than having a Native American civ).