Geographical classification

Asia > Iraq

Socio-cultural movements

Antiquity > Mesopotamian culture

Groups by dedication

Rulers > Politicians

Clerical or spiritual women > Theologists

Clerical or spiritual women > Priestesses

Scientists > Astronomers

Musicians > Composers

Writers > Poets

Character
Disco

Enheduanna

Akkadian Empire, Mesopotamia c. 2285 B.C.E. ‖ Ur, Mesopotamia c. 2250 B.C.E.

Period of activity: From 2270 B.C.E. until 2250 B.C.E.

Geographical classification: Asia > Iraq

Socio-cultural movements

Antiquity > Mesopotamian culture

Groups by dedication

Rulers > Politicians

Clerical or spiritual women > Theologists

Clerical or spiritual women > Priestesses

Scientists > Astronomers

Musicians > Composers

Writers > Poets

Context of feminine creation

Born in Akkad, ancient Mesopotamia, current Iraq. 

Her work had a great influence on the society, culture and religion of her time and also after her death, later falling into oblivion. In the 20th century, she has been rediscovered and her work valued. She has some contemporaries in other cultures such as the chief physician of the Saqqara court, Merith Ptah, before her, or the later Assyrian perfumers, such as Taputti Bellatekallim.

Review

Enheduanna was a priestess, writer, politician and musician. He is considered the first writer who signed his work (Exaltation of Inanna), male or female, of mankind. She was also the first person to develop a musical notation and to determine the primitive planetary position (4 planets). She was a priestess of Innana and developed theological norms. Her name is the oldest known in a written text (tablet). Daughter of King Sargon I of Akad, she held political and religious office in Ur. Her signature appears on an alabaster disc with the text "I am Enheduanna, priestess of Nana", next to her portrait. He wrote more than forty hymns, mostly dedicated to the goddess Inanna.

Justifications

  • First writer, male or female, of humanity. Her work is named Exaltation of Inanna.
  • First person who developed a musical notation.
  • First person who determined the primitive planetary position (4 planets).
  • She developed theological norms.
  • Priestess of Inanna.
  • Influential female politician.

Biography

Enheduanna was the first known person to sign her work, and she did so on a clay tablet in cuneiform script, about 4,300 years ago. She lived between 2285 and 2250 BC. She was the daughter of Sargon I of Akkad, the first king to unify the city-states of Upper and Lower Mesopotamia into a single empire. 
Enheduanna was the high priestess of the lunar god Nanna in the city of Ur, one of the most important cities of the recently conquered Sumer, in southern Mesopotamia, so her appointment was a clever political decision and combined both political functions as religious. Her position lasted after her death since, for centuries, the name of priestesses appears next to the lists of the kings. We know her image through an alabaster disc found in 1927, in the sacred area of Ur, in which her name appears written.  

The first planetary positions were established by Enheduanna, beginning with astronomy.

She also made the first musical notation to reproduce music. 

But the main function of Enheduanna was that of priestess of the goddess Inanna, goddess of war and love, to whom she wrote numerous hymns and poems. One of her works stands out, namely The Exaltation of Inanna, where she narrates her expulsion from Ur, after a revolt, and her subsequent return to the city.

It is unclear if Enheduanna was her real name or a title, High Priestess. She may have had a Semitic name (she came from Akkad), but she arrived in Ur, the centre of the Sumerian culture. She then changed it to Enheduanna, the meaning of which also has various interpretations.

 

Works

The Exaltation to Inanna (three poems in honour of the goddess Inanna).
Three poems to Nanna (moon God).
42 temple hymns.

Most of them are included in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL), from the University of Oxford, which includes a selection from the 2nd and 3rd millennium BC.  

Some commented fragments can be consulted on the following page:

Research Gate, 15/03/2022, <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337318200_Enheduanna_mujer_primer_autor_en_la_historia_Escribio_poemas_en_cuneiforme> 

 

Didactic approach

She can be studied in geography and history of 1st ESO to deal with cuneiform writing and society and politics in Mesopotamia. Also, to address the roles of priests and priestesses. In art: the relief in Mesopotamia (analysis of the disc with the image of Enheduanna).

She can also be addressed in classical culture of 1st ESO, literature, music, mathematics and physics. 

Documents