Enheduanna
c. 2285 BCE · Ur
Enheduanna was a daughter of Sargon of Akkad whom he installed as en-priestess of the moon-god Nanna at Ur — a high religious office that helped bind the Sumerian south to Akkadian rule, and an appointment securely attested in inscriptions and on the alabaster Disk of Enheduanna. By tradition she is the named author of Sumerian literary works, above all the cycle of Temple Hymns and the hymn known as the Exaltation of Inana, which would make her one of the earliest authors known by name. That authorship is debated: the manuscripts survive only in copies made centuries after her lifetime, and scholars differ over how much of the attributed corpus she actually composed.
Did you know?
History's first named author was a Sumerian priestess
The earliest author in world history known by name is Enheduanna, a high priestess at Ur and a daughter of Sargon of Akkad. Around 2285 BCE she composed hymns in Sumerian — including a long poem to the goddess Inanna — and attached her own name to them, roughly 4,300 years ago and some 1,500 years before Homer.
How we know
Enheduanna (fl. c. 2285 BCE), EN-priestess of the moon god Nanna at Ur and daughter of Sargon of Akkad; author of the Sumerian Temple Hymns and "The Exaltation of Inanna" — the earliest known author in world history attached to their work by name. 2285 + 2026 = 4,311 (~4,300); before Homer (c. 8th c. BCE) ~1,500 yrs.
He revived a priesthood last held 1,700 years earlier
Around 550 BCE, the Babylonian king Nabonidus installed his own daughter as high priestess of the moon god at Ur, reviving an ancient office that had long fallen into disuse — one whose most famous early holder, Enheduanna, had served some 1,700 years earlier. To reconstruct the lapsed rites, his scribes consulted monuments left by far older ages.
Meet Nabonidus →How we know
Enheduanna served as en/entu-priestess of the moon god Nanna at Ur c. 2285 BCE (reign of Sargon of Akkad); Nabonidus (r. 556–539 BCE) revived the entu office of Sin at Ur and installed his daughter Ennigaldi-Nanna, dated c. 547 BCE (vacant since Nebuchadnezzar I, 12th c. BCE). Gap ~1,735 years (~1,700). Middle Chronology.
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Ur
We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.
About Ur
A great southern city sacred to the moon-god Nanna (modern Tell el-Muqayyar), capital of the Third Dynasty of Ur. The pin marks the tablet's findspot; the small adjacent mounds of Diqdiqqah are grouped here.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.