Culture
Arts
Sumerians were very interested in The Arts. Painting, architecture, & music were the most popular forms of art in Ancient Mesopotamia. Music was a very important art to Sumerians. The musicians played instruments such as pipes, drums & a wooden instrument called a lyre. The lyre was the musician's favorite instrument to play. It is a wooden instrument made of a sound box & strings. A wooden bar holds the strings at the top of the lyre. It is often decorated with stones & carvings made of horn.
Government
The Mesopotamian government was made to direct people's behavior & make life orderly. The government was ruled by all kings in a group that controls the empire. It is believed that their kings were chosen by gods to rule in their place. It was also believed that they also had to obey the rules of the gods! Sumerian kings enforced the laws & collected taxes. These powerful kings led the military of the city & were constantly fighting over lands & boundaries. The governors ruled the outlaying time, the scribes were the ones who kept track of records of laws! the Sumerians were actually the first people to create a system of written law.! These kings also had officials to help them rule there land.
Writing
Sumer had a highly developed written language called cuneiform. Sumerians used a wedge-shaped stylus to etch their writing in clay tablets. This form of writing was developed around 2400 B.C.E. & was based off a former writing system called pictograph. It was used to record information about the goods they exchanged with one & other. Cuneiform used as many as 2,000 characters to stand for ideas & sounds, but was later reduced to 700 characters.
Religion
A religious system usually includes a set of beliefs, usually in god or gods, & also had a form of worship. In Sumer, religious beliefs influenced every part of daily life. Sumerians often tried to appease the gods by planting crops & settling disputes. They also expressed their beliefs by building temples & religious towers called Ziggurats. The King's duty was to maintain the temples & towers. These towers were made out of mud bricks & some were as high as 200 feet tall! Sumerians believed the gods lived in the ziggurats & they also built temples at the top for them. Attached to the temple was a long stair case so the gods could come down to the Earth. The Sumerian statues also expressed religious beliefs. They are very detailed & commonly show people worshipping the gods. They often ceremonies at which musicians would play & the Sumerians would partake in human-sacrifice to shoe their loyalty to the gods.