Sumer

qas: question: Some scholars contest that there was only one what?
answers: text: substrate language

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

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

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

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

question: What language is believed to have started among nomadic people?

question: What people lived in river region of Arabia?

question: Who was king in the 2600's BC?

question: Who believes the Sumerians lived in the area of modern Persia?
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: question: How long was there native Sumerian rule during the Third Dynasty of Ur?
answers: text: about a century

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

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

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

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

question: What Empire was followed by native Sumerian rule?

question: What dynasty was in power from the 21st to the 20th century BC?

question: What was the worlds first settlement?

question: How many cultures could be found in Arabia at the time?
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: question: What is the common name given to the non-Semitic dwellers of Mesopotamia by the Akkadians?
answers: text: Sumerian

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

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

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

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

question: What is the common name for the Semitic people Mesopotamia?

question: What were the Semitic Akkadians called?

question: What did the term Shumer lead to?
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: question: During what periods did the Sumerican city-states rise to power?
answers: text: prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk

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

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

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

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

question: What city-states declined during the Ubaid and Uruk periods?

question: What history goes back to 2700's BC?

question: What was obscure until 2300 BC?

question: What Empire came to power in 2300 BC?

question: What dynasty lasted until the 17th century BC?
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: question: Fine quality painted pottery is a distinctive style of what period in Sumerian history?
answers: text: Ubaid

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

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

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

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

question: What period was marked by a decline in Mesopotamian and Persian fine Art? 

question: what was established at Eridu in the 53rd century BC?

question: What culture adopted and improved on irrigation agriculture?

question: What city became the new religious center after Eridu?
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: question: What facilitated the rise of Sumerian cities?
answers: text: trade goods

question: How were trade goods transported in southern Mesopotamia?
answers: text: transported along the canals and rivers

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

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

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

question: What period ranged from the 41st to the 29th century BC?

question: What was transported along the rovers and canals of northern Mesopotamia?

question: Who employed many laborers in the cities?

question: When did Sumerians stop using slave labor?
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: question: What is an "ensi"?
answers: text: priest-king

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

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

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

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

question: When were Sumerian cities lead by a council of elders?

question: What was the Sumerian political structure based on?

question: During what period did Sumeria develop professional soldiers?

question: How many inhabitants did Sumeria have during the Uruk period?
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: question: What is the name of the earliest dynastic Sumerian king?
answers: text: Etana

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

question: Who is the earliest king that is authenticated by actual physical evidence and not just legend?
answers: text: Enmebaragesi

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

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

question: Who is the first Sumerian king?

question: Who was the king during the last dynasty o Kish?

question: Who was king of Kish in the 2600's BC?

question: What epic was about Enmebaragesi?

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

question: What city-state was the rival of Lagash?
answers: text: Umma

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

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

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

question: What was the shortest empire in history?

question: What city was the ally of Lagash?

question: What cities flocked to Eannatum's empire?

question: Who made Lagash a tribute state?
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: question: Where is the Semetic Akkadian language first found?
answers: text: proper names of the kings of Kish

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

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

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

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

question: What language was used only to make the king lists?

question: What language was used for the kings list in the 28th century BC?

question: What was written in the 25th century BC?

question: Who's reign ended in the 22nd century BC?

question: What was a literary language by the 18th century BC?
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: question: Which dynasty of Ur was the last great Sumerian renaissance?
answers: text: 3rd

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

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

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

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

question: When was the first Sumerian renaissance?

question: During who's reign was the area becoming more Sumerian than Semitic?

question: Where was the power of Akkadian speaking Semites declining?

question: What people where leaving the are  to form other powers?

question: Who dominated northern Mesopotamia in the 2100's?
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: question: What effect was rising salinity having on the agricultural productivity of the Sumerian lands?
answers: text: compromised

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

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

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

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

question: What shifted from the north to the south of Mesopotamia?

question: What was increasing agricultural productivity in the area?

question: What crop was more salt tolerant than barley?

question: What caused the population to decrease between the 21st and 17th century BC?

question: What weakened the areas where Akkadian was spoken?
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: question: Who were a non-Semitic caucasoid people?
answers: text: The Sumerians

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

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

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

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

question: What people were Semitic Caucasoid?

question: What period began in the 53rd century?

question: Where did people fish in the Ubaid period?
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: question: Where do some archaeologists speculate Sumerians originally moved from?
answers: text: the north

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

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

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

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

question: Who perfected irrigation in the south of Mesopotamia?

question: Who moved from south Mesopotamia to the north?

question: What cultural period began in the 57th century BC?

question: What type of agriculture was developed along the Euphrates river?
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: question: How were women protected in Sumerian society?
answers: text: law

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

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

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

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

question: Who had higher status in other cultures that in Sumeria?

question: Who's code protected women above all others?

question: Who was able to remarry whenever they chose?
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: question: What were the most important discoveries for archaeologists from Sumer?
answers: text: tablets written in cuneiform

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

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

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

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

question: What are the oldest examples of writing?

question: What kind of picture writing followed cuneiform?

question:  were wedge shaped stones used to write on?

question: What type of ideogram writings have survived?

question: Who were the only people who could write at the time?
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: question: Why is the Sumerian language usually thought of as a language isolate in linguistics?
answers: text: belongs to no known language family

question: Akkadian's language can be traced to the Semitic branch of what languages?
answers: text: Afroasiatic

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

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

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

question: Why is Akkadian an isolate language?

question: What are added together to make words in analytic languages?

question: What language has been proven to proceed Sumerian?
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: question: How many cosmogenic myths does the religion of the Sumerians appear to be founded upon?
answers: text: two

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

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

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

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

question: What influenced world religions?
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: question: What did the Sumerian deities form?
answers: text: a core pantheon

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

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

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

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

question: What did each Sumerian city have?

question: What changed with a particular gods popularity?

question: Who made humans for their amusement?

question: who organized large building projects?
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: question: What were Sumerian temples known as?
answers: text: Ziggurats

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

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

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

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

question: What feature of temples provided fresh drinking water?

question: What was stored away from the temples?

question: what was a precursor to pyramids?
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: question: What type of afterlife could Sumerians look forward to?
answers: text: confined to a gloomy world

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

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

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

question: What type of instrument are the Sumerians thought to have invented to use at royal funerals?
answers: text: oboe-like
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: question: When do the pictograms suggest Sumerians had domesticated livestock?
answers: text: Uruk period

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

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

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

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

question: What animals were domesticated following the Uruk period?

question: Who used donkeys as beasts of burden?

question: Who first grew plants in pots?

question: What writing form was invented by the Sumerian?
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: question: What was Sumerians one of the first societies known to consume?
answers: text: beer

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

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

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

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

question: Who invented beer?

question: What Epic tells how to make beer?

question: What hero refused to drink beer?
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: question: How do archaeologists know about Sumerian agricultural practices? 
answers: text: from the "Sumerian Farmer's Almanac"

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

question: Why did the Sumerian farmers make their oxen stomp the ground?
answers: text: kill weeds

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

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

question: What people first wrote an Almanac?

question: What was the name of the first Almanac?

question: What did farmers flood just before the new year?

question: When did farmers switch from barley to wheat?
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: question: What does Archibald Sayce think early Sumerian pictograms suggest about the availability of stone?
answers: text: was scarce

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

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

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

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

question: What suggested that stone was common?

question: Who claims stone was common in Sumeria since it was used for seals?

question: Where were towers built from stone?
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: question: What is the most impressive and famous style of Sumerian buildings?
answers: text: the ziggurats

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

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

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

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

question: What are the oldest examples of "Sumerian buildings?

question: What type of seals were made with reeds?

question: What type of house was built until the 4th century CE?

question: Who built reed houses until the 4th century CE?
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: question: What did the Sumerians a complex system of around 4000 BC?
answers: text: metrology

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

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

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

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

question: Who developed  a complex system of metrology in the 4th century BC?

question: What type of math did the Sumerians invent by the 26th century BC?

question: What tool was invented in the 27th century BC?

question: Who invented the slide ruler?
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: question: What were the main types of loans in Sumerian society?
answers: text: Commercial credit and agricultural consumer

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

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

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

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

question: Who extended personal credit to citizens?

question: What was set at 1/60 a month after 2000 BC?

question: Who lent money to farmers to plant crops?
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: question: What type of debt did "clean slate" decrees cancel?
answers: text: rural

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

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

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

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

question: Who some times cleared commercial debts?

question: What was it called when rulers cleared commercial debts?

question: Who made a clean slate decree in the 24th century BC?
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: question: What contributed to developing military technology for Sumer?
answers: text: almost constant wars

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

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

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

question: What shape were the shields of the infantry of Lagash?
answers: text: rectangular
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: question: When did evidence of wheeled vehicles appear throughout the world?
answers: text: mid 4th millennium BC

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

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

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

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

question: What type of vehicle was invented in 400 BC?

question: What  writing system predates heiroglphs?

question: What science was developed by Greeks?

question: How many planets did the Sumerians discover?
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: question: Sumerians used number systems which included what alternating bases?
answers: text: base 10 and base 6

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

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

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

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

question: What system did Sumerians borrow from Babylonia?

question: What was being used for private purposes well before the 26th century BC?

question: What learning centers were established the temples?

question: Who made the first laws?
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.