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The Struggle to Unearth the World's First Author
Decades ago, archeologists discovered the work of Enheduanna, an ancient priestess who seemed to alter the story of literature. Why hasnt her claim been affirmed?Around forty-three hundred years ago, in a region that we now call Iraq, a sculptor chiselled into a white limestone disk the image of a woman presiding over a temple ritual. She wears a long ceremonial robe and a headdress. There are two male attendants behind her, and one in front, pouring a libation on an altar. On the back of the disk, an inscription identifies her as Enheduanna, a high priestess and the daughter of King Sargon.
Some scholars believe that the priestess was also the worlds first recorded author. A clay tablet preserves the words of a long narrative poem: I took up my place in the sanctuary dwelling, / I was high priestess, I, Enheduanna. In Sumer, the ancient civilization of southern Mesopotamia where writing originated, texts were anonymous. If Enheduanna wrote those words, then she marks the beginning of authorship, the beginning of rhetoric, even the beginning of autobiography. To put her precedence in perspective, she lived fifteen hundred years before Homer, seventeen hundred years before Sappho, and two thousand years before Aristotle, who is traditionally credited as the father of the rhetorical tradition.
The poem, written in the wedge-shaped impressions of cuneiform, describes a period of crisis in the priestesss life. Enheduannas father, Sargon, united Mesopotamias city-states to create what is sometimes called historys first empire. His domain stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, encompassing modern-day Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, and Syria, including more than sixty-five cities, each with its own religious traditions, administrative system, and local identity. Although Sargon ruled from Akkad, in the north, he appointed his daughter high priestess at the temple of the moon god in the southern city of Ur. The position, though outwardly religious, was in practice political, helping to unify disparate parts of the empire. After Sargons death, the kingdom was torn by rebellion; the throne went briefly to Enheduannas brothers, and then to her nephew. In the poem, a usurper named Lugalannea military general who possibly led an uprising in Urdrives Enheduanna from her place at the temple.
He has turned that temple into a house of ill repute./ Forcing his way in as if he were an equal, he dared approach me in his lust! Enheduanna says. Cast out of the city, she wanders the wilderness. He made me walk a land of thorns. / He took away the noble diadem of my holy office, / He gave me a dagger: This is just right for you, he said. The full significance of the usurpers crime is lost in a literal translation, but the language suggests sexual violation. (The verbs, one translator has noted, are the same ones used elsewhere to convey sexual advances.) It also suggests an incitement to suicide. Giving her a dagger, Lugalanne encourages her to kill herself. This is just right for you.
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-struggle-to-unearth-the-worlds-first-author
Fascinating article for those who may be interested in Sumerian archeology.
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The Struggle to Unearth the World's First Author (Original Post)
Zorro
Nov 2022
OP
slightlv
(2,840 posts)1. Thank you
for bringing this article to our attention! How so likely they've argued through the ages that this Priestess couldn't possibly have authored or compiled the book(s) of devotions. The men just *knew* these had to be authored by men, regardless of the evidence. Even to today, the disagreements continue. (smdh)
scarletlib
(3,418 posts)5. That's the answer right there. Men think they are first at everything. If they can't find a way
to claim authorship then they will bury it. Its a time honored tradition to bury the a accomplishments of women or claim them for themselves.
Bayard
(22,154 posts)2. Fascinating!
Thanks for posting.
Karadeniz
(22,573 posts)3. A must read article !!!!
Pantagruel
(2,580 posts)4. Terrific article
Thanks.
scarletlib
(3,418 posts)6. Great article.
Maybe you could post in general discussion. A little cross-pollination of new ideas.
A lot of really good stuff gets posted in editorials that I think dont get seen by a lot of people on DU