Sumer

context: However, some scholars contest the idea of a Proto-Euphratean language or one substrate language. It has been suggested by them and others, that the Sumerian language was originally that of the hunter and fisher peoples, who lived in the marshland and the Eastern Arabia littoral region, and were part of the Arabian bifacial culture. Reliable historical records begin much later; there are none in Sumer of any kind that have been dated before Enmebaragesi (c. 26th century BC). Professor Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians were settled along the coast of Eastern Arabia, today's Persian Gulf region, before it flooded at the end of the Ice Age.
qas: answers: text: substrate language
question: Some scholars contest that there was only one what?

answers: text: hunter and fisher peoples
question: Who do some scholars think the Sumerian language originally belonged to?

answers: text: marshland
question: Where did the original Sumerians live?

answers: text: Arabian bifacial
question: What culture did the peoples who would be called Sumerian have a part in?

answers: text: 26th century BC
question: When were the earliest historical records of Sumer?

context: Native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about a century in the Neo-Sumerian Empire or Third Dynasty of Ur (Sumerian Renaissance) approximately 2100-2000 BC, but the Akkadian language also remained in use. The Sumerian city of Eridu, on the coast of the Persian Gulf, is considered to have been the world's first city, where three separate cultures may have fused — that of peasant Ubaidian farmers, living in mud-brick huts and practicing irrigation; that of mobile nomadic Semitic pastoralists living in black tents and following herds of sheep and goats; and that of fisher folk, living in reed huts in the marshlands, who may have been the ancestors of the Sumerians.
qas: answers: text: about a century
question: How long was there native Sumerian rule during the Third Dynasty of Ur?

answers: text: approximately 2100-2000 BC
question: When was the Third Dynasty of Ur?

answers: text: Akkadian
question: What language was in use in the Neo-Sumerian Empire?

answers: text: Eridu
question: What is considered to be the world's first city?

answers: text: three
question: How many cultures may have fused together in Eridu?

context: The term "Sumerian" is the common name given to the ancient non-Semitic inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Sumer, by the Semitic Akkadians. The Sumerians referred to themselves as ùĝ saĝ gíg-ga (cuneiform: 𒌦 𒊕 𒈪 𒂵), phonetically /uŋ saŋ giga/, literally meaning "the black-headed people", and to their land as ki-en-gi(-r) ('place' + 'lords' + 'noble'), meaning "place of the noble lords". The Akkadian word Shumer may represent the geographical name in dialect, but the phonological development leading to the Akkadian term šumerû is uncertain. Hebrew Shinar, Egyptian Sngr, and Hittite Šanhar(a), all referring to southern Mesopotamia, could be western variants of Shumer.
qas: answers: text: Sumerian
question: What is the common name given to the non-Semitic dwellers of Mesopotamia by the Akkadians?

answers: text: "the black-headed people"
question: What did the Sumerians refer to themselves as in their language?

answers: text: "place of the noble lords"
question: How did the Sumerians refer to their land?

answers: text: geographical
question: Shumer, an Akkadian word, could reference what type of name?

answers: text: southern
question: What compass point of Mesopotamia did the Hebrew Shinar refer to?

context: The Sumerian city-states rose to power during the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods. Sumerian written history reaches back to the 27th century BC and before, but the historical record remains obscure until the Early Dynastic III period, c. the 23rd century BC, when a now deciphered syllabary writing system was developed, which has allowed archaeologists to read contemporary records and inscriptions. Classical Sumer ends with the rise of the Akkadian Empire in the 23rd century BC. Following the Gutian period, there is a brief Sumerian Renaissance in the 21st century BC, cut short in the 20th century BC by Semitic Amorite invasions. The Amorite "dynasty of Isin" persisted until c. 1700 BC, when Mesopotamia was united under Babylonian rule. The Sumerians were eventually absorbed into the Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian) population.
qas: answers: text: prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk
question: During what periods did the Sumerican city-states rise to power?

answers: text: Sumerian written history
question: What is obscure until the Early Dynastic III period around the 23rd century BC?

answers: text: syllabary writing system
question: What was developed that has allowed archaeologists to read contemporary records and inscriptions?

answers: text: rise of the Akkadian Empire
question: When does Classical Sumer end?

answers: text: Semitic Amorite invasions
question: What cut short the Sumerian Renaissance in the 21st century BC?

context: The Ubaid period is marked by a distinctive style of fine quality painted pottery which spread throughout Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf. During this time, the first settlement in southern Mesopotamia was established at Eridu (Cuneiform: NUN.KI), c. 5300 BC, by farmers who brought with them the Hadji Muhammed culture, which first pioneered irrigation agriculture. It appears that this culture was derived from the Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia. It is not known whether or not these were the actual Sumerians who are identified with the later Uruk culture. Eridu remained an important religious center when it was gradually surpassed in size by the nearby city of Uruk. The story of the passing of the me (gifts of civilization) to Inanna, goddess of Uruk and of love and war, by Enki, god of wisdom and chief god of Eridu, may reflect this shift in hegemony.
qas: answers: text: Ubaid
question: Fine quality painted pottery is a distinctive style of what period in Sumerian history?

answers: text: Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf
question: Where could the pottery be found spread throughout?

answers: text: Eridu
question: During the Ubaid, where was the first settlement in southern Mesopotamia established?

answers: text: irrigation
question: What type of agriculture did the farmers settling at Eridu bring with them?

answers: text: Enki
question: Who was the chief god of Eridu?

context: By the time of the Uruk period (c. 4100–2900 BC calibrated), the volume of trade goods transported along the canals and rivers of southern Mesopotamia facilitated the rise of many large, stratified, temple-centered cities (with populations of over 10,000 people) where centralized administrations employed specialized workers. It is fairly certain that it was during the Uruk period that Sumerian cities began to make use of slave labor captured from the hill country, and there is ample evidence for captured slaves as workers in the earliest texts. Artifacts, and even colonies of this Uruk civilization have been found over a wide area—from the Taurus Mountains in Turkey, to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and as far east as central Iran.
qas: answers: text: transported along the canals and rivers
question: How were trade goods transported in southern Mesopotamia?

answers: text: trade goods
question: What facilitated the rise of Sumerian cities?

answers: text: over 10,000
question: How many people lived in the cities?

answers: text: Uruk
question: During which period did Sumerian cities begin using slave labor?

answers: text: Artifacts
question: What have been found as far east as central Iran?

context: Sumerian cities during the Uruk period were probably theocratic and were most likely headed by a priest-king (ensi), assisted by a council of elders, including both men and women. It is quite possible that the later Sumerian pantheon was modeled upon this political structure. There was little evidence of organized warfare or professional soldiers during the Uruk period, and towns were generally unwalled. During this period Uruk became the most urbanized city in the world, surpassing for the first time 50,000 inhabitants.
qas: answers: text: priest-king
question: What is an "ensi"?

answers: text: theocratic
question: What type of leadership did Sumerian cities during the Uruk period probably have?

answers: text: a council of elders
question: Who assisted the ensi?

answers: text: Uruk
question: What was the most urbanized city in the world at the time?

answers: text: 50,000
question: Over how many people lived in Uruk?

context: The earliest dynastic king on the Sumerian king list whose name is known from any other legendary source is Etana, 13th king of the first dynasty of Kish. The earliest king authenticated through archaeological evidence is Enmebaragesi of Kish (c. 26th century BC), whose name is also mentioned in the Gilgamesh epic—leading to the suggestion that Gilgamesh himself might have been a historical king of Uruk. As the Epic of Gilgamesh shows, this period was associated with increased war. Cities became walled, and increased in size as undefended villages in southern Mesopotamia disappeared. (Gilgamesh is credited with having built the walls of Uruk).
qas: answers: text: Enmebaragesi
question: Who is the earliest king that is authenticated by actual physical evidence and not just legend?

answers: text: Kish
question: What dynasty was Etana the 13th king of?

answers: text: Etana
question: What is the name of the earliest dynastic Sumerian king?

answers: text: increased war
question: What is the period of Enmebaragesi's reign associated with?

answers: text: Gilgamesh epic
question: Where is Enmebaragesi's name mentioned?

context: Although short-lived, one of the first empires known to history was that of Eannatum of Lagash, who annexed practically all of Sumer, including Kish, Uruk, Ur, and Larsa, and reduced to tribute the city-state of Umma, arch-rival of Lagash. In addition, his realm extended to parts of Elam and along the Persian Gulf. He seems to have used terror as a matter of policy. Eannatum's Stele of the Vultures depicts vultures pecking at the severed heads and other body parts of his enemies. His empire collapsed shortly after his death.
qas: answers: text: Umma
question: What city-state was the rival of Lagash?

answers: text: practically all of Sumer
question: What did Eannatum annex?

answers: text: Eannatum of Lagash,
question: What is one of the first empires known in history?

answers: text: terror
question: What did Eannatum use to keep the people of the time in line?

answers: text: collapsed
question: What happened to Eannatum's empire after his death?

context: The Semitic Akkadian language is first attested in proper names of the kings of Kish c. 2800 BC, preserved in later king lists. There are texts written entirely in Old Akkadian dating from c. 2500 BC. Use of Old Akkadian was at its peak during the rule of Sargon the Great (c. 2270–2215 BC), but even then most administrative tablets continued to be written in Sumerian, the language used by the scribes. Gelb and Westenholz differentiate three stages of Old Akkadian: that of the pre-Sargonic era, that of the Akkadian empire, and that of the "Neo-Sumerian Renaissance" that followed it. Akkadian and Sumerian coexisted as vernacular languages for about one thousand years, but by around 1800 BC, Sumerian was becoming more of a literary language familiar mainly only to scholars and scribes. Thorkild Jacobsen has argued that there is little break in historical continuity between the pre- and post-Sargon periods, and that too much emphasis has been placed on the perception of a "Semitic vs. Sumerian" conflict. However, it is certain that Akkadian was also briefly imposed on neighboring parts of Elam that were previously conquered by Sargon.
qas: answers: text: proper names of the kings of Kish
question: Where is the Semetic Akkadian language first found?

answers: text: king lists
question: Where is the Semetic Akkadian language found preserved after 2800 BC?

answers: text: Sargon the Great
question: During whose rule was the use of Old Akkadian at its peak?

answers: text: Sumerian
question: What language did scribes use over Akkadian?

answers: text: about one thousand years
question: How long did Akkadian and Sumerian coexist as spoken languages?

context: Later, the 3rd dynasty of Ur under Ur-Nammu and Shulgi, whose power extended as far as southern Assyria, was the last great "Sumerian renaissance", but already the region was becoming more Semitic than Sumerian, with the rise in power of the Akkadian speaking Semites in Assyria and elsewhere, and the influx of waves of Semitic Martu (Amorites) who were to found several competing local powers including Isin, Larsa, Eshnunna and eventually Babylon. The last of these eventually came to dominate the south of Mesopotamia as the Babylonian Empire, just as the Old Assyrian Empire had already done so in the north from the late 21st century BC. The Sumerian language continued as a sacerdotal language taught in schools in Babylonia and Assyria, much as Latin was used in the Medieval period, for as long as cuneiform was utilized.
qas: answers: text: 3rd
question: Which dynasty of Ur was the last great Sumerian renaissance?

answers: text: Ur-Nammu and Shulgi
question: Who guided Ur during the last gasp of power?

answers: text: more Semitic than Sumerian
question: Even during the 3rd dynasty, what was happening to the racial makeup of the region?

answers: text: Amorites
question: What was there an influx of waves of coming into Sumerian lands?

answers: text: for as long as cuneiform was utilized.
question: How long did the Babylonians and Assyrians continue to teach the Sumerian language in their schools?

context: This period is generally taken to coincide with a major shift in population from southern Mesopotamia toward the north. Ecologically, the agricultural productivity of the Sumerian lands was being compromised as a result of rising salinity. Soil salinity in this region had been long recognized as a major problem. Poorly drained irrigated soils, in an arid climate with high levels of evaporation, led to the buildup of dissolved salts in the soil, eventually reducing agricultural yields severely. During the Akkadian and Ur III phases, there was a shift from the cultivation of wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley, but this was insufficient, and during the period from 2100 BC to 1700 BC, it is estimated that the population in this area declined by nearly three fifths. This greatly upset the balance of power within the region, weakening the areas where Sumerian was spoken, and comparatively strengthening those where Akkadian was the major language. Henceforth Sumerian would remain only a literary and liturgical language, similar to the position occupied by Latin in medieval Europe.
qas: answers: text: compromised
question: What effect was rising salinity having on the agricultural productivity of the Sumerian lands?

answers: text: Soil
question: The salinity of what in the region was long recognized as a major problem?

answers: text: dissolved salts
question: Poorly drained irrigated soils in an arid climate with a good deal of evaporation is responsible for leaving what?

answers: text: wheat
question: What did cultivation shift from to salt-tolerant barley during the Ur III phase?

answers: text: by nearly three fifths
question: How much did the population of the region decline due to the decrease in crop productivity? 

context: The Sumerians were a non-Semitic caucasoid people, and spoke a language isolate; a number of linguists believed they could detect a substrate language beneath Sumerian, because names of some of Sumer's major cities are not Sumerian, revealing influences of earlier inhabitants. However, the archaeological record shows clear uninterrupted cultural continuity from the time of the early Ubaid period (5300 – 4700 BC C-14) settlements in southern Mesopotamia. The Sumerian people who settled here farmed the lands in this region that were made fertile by silt deposited by the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers.
qas: answers: text: The Sumerians
question: Who were a non-Semitic caucasoid people?

answers: text: earlier inhabitants
question: What influences did the Sumerian language seem to retain?

answers: text: uninterrupted cultural continuity
question: What do archaeological records clearly show about the Sumerian culture?

answers: text: early Ubaid period
question: When were settlements started in southern Mesopotamia?

answers: text: silt deposited by the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers
question: Why were the lands in the region the Sumerian people settled fertile?

context: It is speculated by some archaeologists that Sumerian speakers were farmers who moved down from the north, after perfecting irrigation agriculture there. The Ubaid pottery of southern Mesopotamia has been connected via Choga Mami transitional ware to the pottery of the Samarra period culture (c. 5700 – 4900 BC C-14) in the north, who were the first to practice a primitive form of irrigation agriculture along the middle Tigris River and its tributaries. The connection is most clearly seen at Tell Awayli (Oueilli, Oueili) near Larsa, excavated by the French in the 1980s, where eight levels yielded pre-Ubaid pottery resembling Samarran ware. According to this theory, farming peoples spread down into southern Mesopotamia because they had developed a temple-centered social organization for mobilizing labor and technology for water control, enabling them to survive and prosper in a difficult environment.[citation needed]
qas: answers: text: the north
question: Where do some archaeologists speculate Sumerians originally moved from?

answers: text: irrigation agriculture
question: What had the Sumerians perfected before coming south?

answers: text: the Samarra
question: Who were the first to practice a primitive form of irrigation agriculture?

answers: text: eight
question: How many levels of pre-Ubaid pottery were excavated by the French in the 1980s?

answers: text: labor
question: What did the temple-centered social organization of the farming peoples allow them to mobilize?

context: Though women were protected by late Sumerian law and were able to achieve a higher status in Sumer than in other contemporary civilizations, the culture was male-dominated. The Code of Ur-Nammu, the oldest such codification yet discovered, dating to the Ur-III "Sumerian Renaissance", reveals a glimpse at societal structure in late Sumerian law. Beneath the lu-gal ("great man" or king), all members of society belonged to one of two basic strata: The "lu" or free person, and the slave (male, arad; female geme). The son of a lu was called a dumu-nita until he married. A woman (munus) went from being a daughter (dumu-mi), to a wife (dam), then if she outlived her husband, a widow (numasu) and she could then remarry.
qas: answers: text: law
question: How were women protected in Sumerian society?

answers: text: male
question: What gender dominated Sumerian culture?

answers: text: Ur-Nammu
question: Whose code reveals a bit about the societal structure through Sumerian law?

answers: text: the lu-gal
question: Who was at the top of the power pyramid in Sumerian society?

answers: text: two
question: How many strata existed in Sumerian society?

context: The most important archaeological discoveries in Sumer are a large number of tablets written in cuneiform. Sumerian writing, while proven to be not the oldest example of writing on earth, is considered to be a great milestone in the development of man's ability to not only create historical records but also in creating pieces of literature both in the form of poetic epics and stories as well as prayers and laws. Although pictures — that is, hieroglyphs — were first used, cuneiform and then Ideograms (where symbols were made to represent ideas) soon followed. Triangular or wedge-shaped reeds were used to write on moist clay. A large body of hundreds of thousands of texts in the Sumerian language have survived, such as personal or business letters, receipts, lexical lists, laws, hymns, prayers, stories, daily records, and even libraries full of clay tablets. Monumental inscriptions and texts on different objects like statues or bricks are also very common. Many texts survive in multiple copies because they were repeatedly transcribed by scribes-in-training. Sumerian continued to be the language of religion and law in Mesopotamia long after Semitic speakers had become dominant.
qas: answers: text: tablets written in cuneiform
question: What were the most important discoveries for archaeologists from Sumer?

answers: text: milestone
question: What is Sumerian writing considered to be in the development of man's ability to create literature?

answers: text: Ideograms
question: What followed cuneiform in writing?

answers: text: hundreds of thousands
question: How many texts in the Sumerian language have survived to modern day?

answers: text: religion and law in Mesopotamia
question: What was the Sumerian language used for long have their civilization had diminished? 

context: The Sumerian language is generally regarded as a language isolate in linguistics because it belongs to no known language family; Akkadian, by contrast, belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. There have been many failed attempts to connect Sumerian to other language groups. It is an agglutinative language; in other words, morphemes ("units of meaning") are added together to create words, unlike analytic languages where morphemes are purely added together to create sentences. Some authors have proposed that there may be evidence of a sub-stratum or add-stratum language for geographic features and various crafts and agricultural activities, called variously Proto-Euphratean or Proto Tigrean, but this is disputed by others.
qas: answers: text: Afroasiatic
question: Akkadian's language can be traced to the Semitic branch of what languages?

answers: text: belongs to no known language family
question: Why is the Sumerian language usually thought of as a language isolate in linguistics?

answers: text: words
question: In Sumerian, what are morphemes added together to create?

answers: text: failed
question: What has been the result of attempts to connect Sumerian to other language groups?

answers: text: "units of meaning"
question: What are morphemes?

context: Sumerian religion seems to have been founded upon two separate cosmogenic myths. The first saw creation as the result of a series of hieros gami or sacred marriages, involving the reconciliation of opposites, postulated as a coming together of male and female divine beings; the gods. This continued to influence the whole Mesopotamian mythos. Thus in the Enuma Elish the creation was seen as the union of fresh and salt water; as male Abzu, and female Tiamat. The product of that union, Lahm and Lahmu, "the muddy ones", were titles given to the gate keepers of the E-Abzu temple of Enki, in Eridu, the first Sumerian city. Describing the way that muddy islands emerge from the confluence of fresh and salty water at the mouth of the Euphrates, where the river deposited its load of silt, a second hieros gamos supposedly created Anshar and Kishar, the "sky-pivot" or axle, and the "earth pivot", parents in turn of Anu (the sky) and Ki (the earth). Another important Sumerian hieros gamos was that between Ki, here known as Ninhursag or "Lady Sacred Mountain", and Enki of Eridu, the god of fresh water which brought forth greenery and pasture.
qas: answers: text: two
question: How many cosmogenic myths does the religion of the Sumerians appear to be founded upon?

answers: text: a series of hieros gami
question: What does one myth see creation as being the result of?

answers: text: fresh and salt water
question: In the Enuma Elish, what is creation seen as the union of?

answers: text: the muddy ones
question: What were the titles given to the gate keeps of the E-Abzu temple of Enki?

answers: text: Ninhursag
question: Who was the Lady Sacred Mountain?

context: These deities formed a core pantheon; there were additionally hundreds of minor ones. Sumerian gods could thus have associations with different cities, and their religious importance often waxed and waned with those cities' political power. The gods were said to have created human beings from clay for the purpose of serving them. The temples organized the mass labour projects needed for irrigation agriculture. Citizens had a labor duty to the temple, though they could avoid it by a payment of silver.
qas: answers: text: a core pantheon
question: What did the Sumerian deities form?

answers: text: for the purpose of serving them
question: Why did the gods create human beings from clay?

answers: text: different cities
question: What could Sumerian gods be associated with?

answers: text: those cities' political power
question: What did the religious importance of city gods wax and wan with?

answers: text: a payment of silver
question: How could a citizen avoid their labor duty to their local temple?

context: Ziggurats (Sumerian temples) each had an individual name and consisted of a forecourt, with a central pond for purification. The temple itself had a central nave with aisles along either side. Flanking the aisles would be rooms for the priests. At one end would stand the podium and a mudbrick table for animal and vegetable sacrifices. Granaries and storehouses were usually located near the temples. After a time the Sumerians began to place the temples on top of multi-layered square constructions built as a series of rising terraces, giving rise to the Ziggurat style.
qas: answers: text: Ziggurats
question: What were Sumerian temples known as?

answers: text: purification
question: What was the central pond in the forecourt of a Ziggurat for?

answers: text: the priests
question: Who were the rooms on either side of the aisles in the temple for?

answers: text: animal and vegetable sacrifices
question: What was the mudbrick table in the temple for?

answers: text: near the temples
question: Where did the Sumerians usually locate their granaries and storehouses?

context: It was believed that when people died, they would be confined to a gloomy world of Ereshkigal, whose realm was guarded by gateways with various monsters designed to prevent people entering or leaving. The dead were buried outside the city walls in graveyards where a small mound covered the corpse, along with offerings to monsters and a small amount of food. Those who could afford it sought burial at Dilmun. Human sacrifice was found in the death pits at the Ur royal cemetery where Queen Puabi was accompanied in death by her servants. It is also said that the Sumerians invented the first oboe-like instrument, and used them at royal funerals.
qas: answers: text: confined to a gloomy world
question: What type of afterlife could Sumerians look forward to?

answers: text: outside the city walls in graveyards
question: Where were dead Sumerians buried?

answers: text: Ereshkigal
question: What realm was guarded by gateways containing various monsters?

answers: text: her servants
question: Who was Queen Puabi accompanied in death by?

answers: text: oboe-like
question: What type of instrument are the Sumerians thought to have invented to use at royal funerals?

context: In the early Sumerian Uruk period, the primitive pictograms suggest that sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs were domesticated. They used oxen as their primary beasts of burden and donkeys or equids as their primary transport animal and "woollen clothing as well as rugs were made from the wool or hair of the animals. ... By the side of the house was an enclosed garden planted with trees and other plants; wheat and probably other cereals were sown in the fields, and the shaduf was already employed for the purpose of irrigation. Plants were also grown in pots or vases."
qas: answers: text: Uruk period
question: When do the pictograms suggest Sumerians had domesticated livestock?

answers: text: enclosed garden planted with trees and other plants
question: What might be found by the side of a Sumerian house?

answers: text: donkeys
question: What animal did Sumerians use primary to facilitate transportation?

answers: text: beasts of burden
question: What was the primary purpose of oxen for Sumerians? 

answers: text: pots or vases
question: Where were plants also grown besides the garden?

context: The Sumerians were one of the first known beer drinking societies. Cereals were plentiful and were the key ingredient in their early brew. They brewed multiple kinds of beer consisting of wheat, barley, and mixed grain beers. Beer brewing was very important to the Sumerians. It was referenced in the Epic of Gilgamesh when Enkidu was introduced to the food and beer of Gilgamesh's people: "Drink the beer, as is the custom of the land... He drank the beer-seven jugs! and became expansive and sang with joy!"
qas: answers: text: beer
question: What was Sumerians one of the first societies known to consume?

answers: text: Cereals
question: What was the key ingredient in early Sumerian brews?

answers: text: wheat, barley, and mixed grain
question: What kinds of beer did the Sumerians brew?

answers: text: very important
question: How important was beer brewing to Sumerians?

answers: text: expansive and sang with joy
question: What did Enkidu become and do after consuming seven jugs of beer?

context: As is known from the "Sumerian Farmer's Almanac", after the flood season and after the Spring Equinox and the Akitu or New Year Festival, using the canals, farmers would flood their fields and then drain the water. Next they made oxen stomp the ground and kill weeds. They then dragged the fields with pickaxes. After drying, they plowed, harrowed, and raked the ground three times, and pulverized it with a mattock, before planting seed. Unfortunately the high evaporation rate resulted in a gradual increase in the salinity of the fields. By the Ur III period, farmers had switched from wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley as their principal crop.
qas: answers: text: kill weeds
question: Why did the Sumerian farmers make their oxen stomp the ground?

answers: text: from the "Sumerian Farmer's Almanac"
question: How do archaeologists know about Sumerian agricultural practices? 

answers: text: three times
question: How many times did Sumerian farmers plow, harrow and rake the ground?

answers: text: after the Spring Equinox and the Akitu
question: When would farmers flood their fields?

answers: text: salt-tolerant barley
question: The the Ur III period, what crop had Sumerians switched to from wheat for their primary crop?

context: According to Archibald Sayce, the primitive pictograms of the early Sumerian (i.e. Uruk) era suggest that "Stone was scarce, but was already cut into blocks and seals. Brick was the ordinary building material, and with it cities, forts, temples and houses were constructed. The city was provided with towers and stood on an artificial platform; the house also had a tower-like appearance. It was provided with a door which turned on a hinge, and could be opened with a sort of key; the city gate was on a larger scale, and seems to have been double. The foundation stones — or rather bricks — of a house were consecrated by certain objects that were deposited under them."
qas: answers: text: was scarce
question: What does Archibald Sayce think early Sumerian pictograms suggest about the availability of stone?

answers: text: into blocks and seals
question: How did the Sumerians fashion the stone they cut?

answers: text: Brick
question: What was the ordinary building material of Sumerians?

answers: text: objects that were deposited under them
question: What were the foundation stones of Sumerian houses consecrated by?

answers: text: tower-like
question: What kind of appearance did Sumerian houses have?

context: The most impressive and famous of Sumerian buildings are the ziggurats, large layered platforms which supported temples. Sumerian cylinder seals also depict houses built from reeds not unlike those built by the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq until as recently as 400 CE. The Sumerians also developed the arch, which enabled them to develop a strong type of dome. They built this by constructing and linking several arches. Sumerian temples and palaces made use of more advanced materials and techniques,[citation needed] such as buttresses, recesses, half columns, and clay nails.
qas: answers: text: the ziggurats
question: What is the most impressive and famous style of Sumerian buildings?

answers: text: 400 CE
question: Sumerians also built houses from reeds not very different from ones built by inhabitants in Iraq as recently as when?

answers: text: by constructing and linking several arches
question: How did the Sumerians build their strong domes?

answers: text: the arch
question: What development by the Sumerians allowed them to make use of domes?

answers: text: Sumerian temples and palaces
question: Where were the use of advanced materials and techniques on display in Sumer?

context: The Sumerians developed a complex system of metrology c. 4000 BC. This advanced metrology resulted in the creation of arithmetic, geometry, and algebra. From c. 2600 BC onwards, the Sumerians wrote multiplication tables on clay tablets and dealt with geometrical exercises and division problems. The earliest traces of the Babylonian numerals also date back to this period. The period c. 2700 – 2300 BC saw the first appearance of the abacus, and a table of successive columns which delimited the successive orders of magnitude of their sexagesimal number system. The Sumerians were the first to use a place value numeral system. There is also anecdotal evidence the Sumerians may have used a type of slide rule in astronomical calculations. They were the first to find the area of a triangle and the volume of a cube.
qas: answers: text: metrology
question: What did the Sumerians a complex system of around 4000 BC?

answers: text: arithmetic, geometry, and algebra
question: From the Sumerian metrology sprang forth the creation of what disciplines? 

answers: text: on clay tablets
question: Where did the Sumerians put their multiplication tables?

answers: text: 2700 – 2300 BC
question: When was the abacus first seen between?

answers: text: use a place value numeral system
question: What were the Sumerians the first to do when it came to mathematics?

context: Commercial credit and agricultural consumer loans were the main types of loans. The trade credit was usually extended by temples in order to finance trade expeditions and was nominated in silver. The interest rate was set at 1/60 a month (one shekel per mina) some time before 2000 BC and it remained at that level for about two thousand years. Rural loans commonly arose as a result of unpaid obligations due to an institution (such as a temple), in this case the arrears were considered to be lent to the debtor. They were denominated in barley or other crops and the interest rate was typically much higher than for commercial loans and could amount to 1/3 to 1/2 of the loan principal.
qas: answers: text: Commercial credit and agricultural consumer
question: What were the main types of loans in Sumerian society?

answers: text: one
question: How man shekel per mina was the interest rate for loans?

answers: text: silver
question: What was trade credit backed by when extended by temples?

answers: text: about two thousand years
question: For how long was the interest rate of Sumerian loans consistent?

answers: text: Rural loans
question: What typically arose as a result of unpaid obligations?

context: Periodically "clean slate" decrees were signed by rulers which cancelled all the rural (but not commercial) debt and allowed bondservants to return to their homes. Customarily rulers did it at the beginning of the first full year of their reign, but they could also be proclaimed at times of military conflict or crop failure. The first known ones were made by Enmetena and Urukagina of Lagash in 2400-2350 BC. According to Hudson, the purpose of these decrees was to prevent debts mounting to a degree that they threatened fighting force which could happen if peasants lost the subsistence land or became bondservants due to the inability to repay the debt.
qas: answers: text: rural
question: What type of debt did "clean slate" decrees cancel?

answers: text: the first full year of their reign
question: When did rulers typically proclaim "clean slate" decrees?

answers: text: to prevent debts mounting to a degree that they threatened fighting force
question: Why were the clean slate decrees useful to the rulers of Sumer?

answers: text: lost the subsistence land or became bondservants
question: What would happen if peasants couldn't repay their debts?

answers: text: Enmetena and Urukagina
question: Who made the first known clean slate decrees?

context: The almost constant wars among the Sumerian city-states for 2000 years helped to develop the military technology and techniques of Sumer to a high level. The first war recorded in any detail was between Lagash and Umma in c. 2525 BC on a stele called the Stele of the Vultures. It shows the king of Lagash leading a Sumerian army consisting mostly of infantry. The infantrymen carried spears, wore copper helmets, and carried rectangular shields. The spearmen are shown arranged in what resembles the phalanx formation, which requires training and discipline; this implies that the Sumerians may have made use of professional soldiers.
qas: answers: text: almost constant wars
question: What contributed to developing military technology for Sumer?

answers: text: 2000 years
question: How many years were the Sumerian city-states at war?

answers: text: Lagash and Umma
question: Who was the first war between in 2525 BC?

answers: text: infantry
question: What did the king of Lagash's army mostly consist of?

answers: text: rectangular
question: What shape were the shields of the infantry of Lagash?

context: Evidence of wheeled vehicles appeared in the mid 4th millennium BC, near-simultaneously in Mesopotamia, the Northern Caucasus (Maykop culture) and Central Europe. The wheel initially took the form of the potter's wheel. The new concept quickly led to wheeled vehicles and mill wheels. The Sumerians' cuneiform writing system is the oldest (or second oldest after the Egyptian hieroglyphs) which has been deciphered (the status of even older inscriptions such as the Jiahu symbols and Tartaria tablets is controversial). The Sumerians were among the first astronomers, mapping the stars into sets of constellations, many of which survived in the zodiac and were also recognized by the ancient Greeks. They were also aware of the five planets that are easily visible to the naked eye.
qas: answers: text: mid 4th millennium BC
question: When did evidence of wheeled vehicles appear throughout the world?

answers: text: potter's wheel
question: What form did wheels initially take?

answers: text: been deciphered
question: The writing system of the Sumerian's is the second oldest to have what done to it?

answers: text: sets of constellations
question: What did the Sumerians map stars into?

answers: text: five
question: How many planets were the Sumerians aware of?

context: They invented and developed arithmetic by using several different number systems including a mixed radix system with an alternating base 10 and base 6. This sexagesimal system became the standard number system in Sumer and Babylonia. They may have invented military formations and introduced the basic divisions between infantry, cavalry, and archers. They developed the first known codified legal and administrative systems, complete with courts, jails, and government records. The first true city-states arose in Sumer, roughly contemporaneously with similar entities in what are now Syria and Lebanon. Several centuries after the invention of cuneiform, the use of writing expanded beyond debt/payment certificates and inventory lists to be applied for the first time, about 2600 BC, to messages and mail delivery, history, legend, mathematics, astronomical records, and other pursuits. Conjointly with the spread of writing, the first formal schools were established, usually under the auspices of a city-state's primary temple.
qas: answers: text: base 10 and base 6
question: Sumerians used number systems which included what alternating bases?

answers: text: sexagesimal
question: What type of number system was standard in Sumer and Babylonia?

answers: text: military
question: What type of formations is it possible Sumerians invented?

answers: text: legal and administrative
question: What systems did the Sumerians develop which remain the first known these types to this day?

answers: text: a city-state's primary temple
question: In Sumerian society, who oversaw the operation of the first formal schools?