derek-thomas/squad-v1.1-t5-question-generation huggingface dataset:
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.

Question: How were women protected in Sumerian society? Question: What gender dominated Sumerian culture? Question: Whose code reveals a bit about the societal structure through Sumerian law? Question: Who was at the top of the power pyramid in Sumerian society? Question: How many strata existed in Sumerian society?
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.

Question: What were the most important discoveries for archaeologists from Sumer? Question: What is Sumerian writing considered to be in the development of man's ability to create literature? Question: What followed cuneiform in writing? Question: How many texts in the Sumerian language have survived to modern day? Question: What was the Sumerian language used for long have their civilization had diminished?
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.

Question: Why is the Sumerian language usually thought of as a language isolate in linguistics? Question: Akkadian's language can be traced to the Semitic branch of what languages? Question: What has been the result of attempts to connect Sumerian to other language groups? Question: What are morphemes? Question: In Sumerian, what are morphemes added together to create?
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.

Question: How many cosmogenic myths does the religion of the Sumerians appear to be founded upon? Question: What does one myth see creation as being the result of? Question: In the Enuma Elish, what is creation seen as the union of? Question: What were the titles given to the gate keeps of the E-Abzu temple of Enki? Question: Who was the Lady Sacred Mountain?
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.

Question: What did the Sumerian deities form? Question: What could Sumerian gods be associated with? Question: What did the religious importance of city gods wax and wan with? Question: Why did the gods create human beings from clay? Question: How could a citizen avoid their labor duty to their local temple?
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.

Question: What were Sumerian temples known as? Question: What was the central pond in the forecourt of a Ziggurat for? Question: Who were the rooms on either side of the aisles in the temple for? Question: What was the mudbrick table in the temple for? Question: Where did the Sumerians usually locate their granaries and storehouses?
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.

Question: What type of afterlife could Sumerians look forward to? Question: What realm was guarded by gateways containing various monsters? Question: Where were dead Sumerians buried? Question: Who was Queen Puabi accompanied in death by? Question: What type of instrument are the Sumerians thought to have invented to use at royal funerals?
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."

Question: When do the pictograms suggest Sumerians had domesticated livestock? Question: What was the primary purpose of oxen for Sumerians? Question: What animal did Sumerians use primary to facilitate transportation? Question: What might be found by the side of a Sumerian house? Question: Where were plants also grown besides the garden?
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!"

Question: What was Sumerians one of the first societies known to consume? Question: What was the key ingredient in early Sumerian brews? Question: What kinds of beer did the Sumerians brew? Question: How important was beer brewing to Sumerians? Question: What did Enkidu become and do after consuming seven jugs of beer?
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.

Question: How do archaeologists know about Sumerian agricultural practices? Question: When would farmers flood their fields? Question: Why did the Sumerian farmers make their oxen stomp the ground? Question: How many times did Sumerian farmers plow, harrow and rake the ground? Question: The the Ur III period, what crop had Sumerians switched to from wheat for their primary crop?
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."

Question: What does Archibald Sayce think early Sumerian pictograms suggest about the availability of stone? Question: How did the Sumerians fashion the stone they cut? Question: What was the ordinary building material of Sumerians? Question: What kind of appearance did Sumerian houses have? Question: What were the foundation stones of Sumerian houses consecrated by?
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.

Question: What is the most impressive and famous style of Sumerian buildings? Question: Sumerians also built houses from reeds not very different from ones built by inhabitants in Iraq as recently as when? Question: What development by the Sumerians allowed them to make use of domes? Question: How did the Sumerians build their strong domes? Question: Where were the use of advanced materials and techniques on display in Sumer?
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.

Question: What did the Sumerians a complex system of around 4000 BC? Question: From the Sumerian metrology sprang forth the creation of what disciplines? Question: Where did the Sumerians put their multiplication tables? Question: When was the abacus first seen between? Question: What were the Sumerians the first to do when it came to mathematics?
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.

Question: What were the main types of loans in Sumerian society? Question: What was trade credit backed by when extended by temples? Question: How man shekel per mina was the interest rate for loans? Question: For how long was the interest rate of Sumerian loans consistent? Question: What typically arose as a result of unpaid obligations?
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.

Question: What type of debt did "clean slate" decrees cancel? Question: When did rulers typically proclaim "clean slate" decrees? Question: Who made the first known clean slate decrees? Question: Why were the clean slate decrees useful to the rulers of Sumer? Question: What would happen if peasants couldn't repay their debts?
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.

Question: What contributed to developing military technology for Sumer? Question: How many years were the Sumerian city-states at war? Question: Who was the first war between in 2525 BC? Question: What did the king of Lagash's army mostly consist of? Question: What shape were the shields of the infantry of Lagash?
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.

Question: When did evidence of wheeled vehicles appear throughout the world? Question: What form did wheels initially take? Question: The writing system of the Sumerian's is the second oldest to have what done to it? Question: What did the Sumerians map stars into? Question: How many planets were the Sumerians aware of?
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.

Question: Sumerians used number systems which included what alternating bases? Question: What type of number system was standard in Sumer and Babylonia? Question: What type of formations is it possible Sumerians invented? Question: What systems did the Sumerians develop which remain the first known these types to this day? Question: In Sumerian society, who oversaw the operation of the first formal schools?
Tuvalu (i/tuːˈvɑːluː/ too-VAH-loo or /ˈtuːvəluː/ TOO-və-loo), formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. It comprises three reef islands and six true atolls spread out between the latitude of 5° to 10° south and longitude of 176° to 180°, west of the International Date Line. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. Tuvalu has a population of 10,640 (2012 census). The total land area of the islands of Tuvalu is 26 square kilometres (10 sq mi).

Question: What is the previous name of Tuvalu? Question: In which ocean is Tuvalu found? Question: Between what land areas is Tuvalu located? Question: What originally formed the Tuvalu islands? Question: According the the 2012 census, how many people live on the Tuvalu islands?
In 1568, Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to sail through the archipelago, sighting the island of Nui during his expedition in search of Terra Australis. In 1819 the island of Funafuti was named Ellice's Island; the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay. The islands came under Britain's sphere of influence in the late 19th century, when each of the Ellice Islands was declared a British Protectorate by Captain Gibson of HMS Curacoa between 9 and 16 October 1892. The Ellice Islands were administered as British protectorate by a Resident Commissioner from 1892 to 1916 as part of the British Western Pacific Territories (BWPT), and then as part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony from 1916 to 1974.

Question: In what year was Tuvalu discovered by a European? Question: Who was the discoverer of Tuvalu? Question: What land mass was de Mendana actually seeking? Question: What was Tuvalu named in 1819? Question: By what means did the British govern Tuvalu?
The origins of the people of Tuvalu are addressed in the theories regarding migration into the Pacific that began about 3000 years ago. During pre-European-contact times there was frequent canoe voyaging between the nearer islands including Samoa and Tonga. Eight of the nine islands of Tuvalu were inhabited; thus the name, Tuvalu, means "eight standing together" in Tuvaluan (compare to *walo meaning "eight" in Proto-Austronesian). Possible evidence of fire in the Caves of Nanumanga may indicate human occupation for thousands of years.

Question: How many years ago did migrations of people happen in the Pacific area? Question: By what means did locale people travel between Pacific islands? Question: On how many of Tuvalu's islands did people live? Question: How many islands are in the Tuvalu group? Question: What is the native language meaning of Tuvalu?
An important creation myth of the islands of Tuvalu is the story of the te Pusi mo te Ali (the Eel and the Flounder) who created the islands of Tuvalu; te Ali (the flounder) is believed to be the origin of the flat atolls of Tuvalu and the te Pusin (the Eel) is the model for the coconut palms that are important in the lives of Tuvaluans. The stories as to the ancestors of the Tuvaluans vary from island to island. On Niutao, Funafuti and Vaitupu the founding ancestor is described as being from Samoa; whereas on Nanumea the founding ancestor is described as being from Tonga.

Question: What is the creation myth of Tuvalu? Question: What does the flounder of the Tuvalu myth represent? Question: What does the eel of the Tuvalu creation myth represent? Question: From what land did the people of Niutao believe they came? Question: From where did the people of the island of Nanumea think they came?
Captain John Byron passed through the islands of Tuvalu in 1764 during his circumnavigation of the globe as captain of the Dolphin (1751). Byron charted the atolls as Lagoon Islands. Keith S. Chambers and Doug Munro (1980) identified Niutao as the island that Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa sailed past on 5 May 1781, thus solving what Europeans had called The Mystery of Gran Cocal. Mourelle's map and journal named the island El Gran Cocal ('The Great Coconut Plantation'); however, the latitude and longitude was uncertain. Longitude could only be reckoned crudely as accurate chronometers were unavailable until the late 18th century.

Question: What explorer traveled through the Tuvalu islands in 1764? Question: What was Captain Byron doing when he visited Tuvalu? Question: How did Byron name the Tuvalu islands? Question: Which island of Tuvalu was identified as the one that Mourelle sailed past in 1781? Question: When were chronometers available for accurate location charting?