Enheduanna, the first named author in history
- Date
- c. 2300 BCE
- Category
- Culture, arts & philosophy
- Region
- Mesopotamia (Iraq)
- Era
- Ancient Civilizations
- Significance
Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon of Akkad, served as 'entu' (high priestess) of the moon god Nanna at the city of Ur, a post her father created in part to bind the Akkadian and Sumerian religious traditions of his new empire.
Several Sumerian literary works, most famously the hymn known as the Exaltation of Inanna, present her as their first-person author, and the Sumerian Temple Hymns are likewise attributed to her. On this basis she is widely celebrated as the earliest author in world history known by name, writing in the first person centuries before comparable named authors elsewhere. Her compositions blend personal voice, political circumstance and devotion to the goddess Inanna, and were copied for centuries after her death. Modern Assyriologists debate how much of the surviving corpus she personally composed, but her identification as a named, self-referential writer marks a milestone in the history of literature and authorship.
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Empires active in c. 2300 BCE
- Indus Valley (Harappan) Civilization2600 BCE to 1900 BCE
- Akkadian Empire2334 BCE to 2154 BCE
- Egyptian Old Kingdom2686 BCE to 2181 BCE
- Elamite Kingdom2700 BCE to 539 BCE
Related culture, arts & philosophy events
- Naram-Sin proclaims divine kingship; the Victory Stelec. 2254 BCE
- Carving of the Great Sphinx of Gizac. 2500 BCE
- Oracle-Bone Script: Earliest Attested Chinese Writingc. 1250 BCE
- Great Hypostyle Hall and temple-building at Karnakc. 1290 to 1213 BCE
- Tomb of Fu Hao: An Undisturbed Shang Royal Burialc. 1250 BCE
- Merneptah Stele: earliest mention of 'Israel'c. 1208 BCE
Essential reading
- Rise of Kerma as an Urban Centre in Nubiac. 2500 BCE
- Standardised Binary Weights System of the Indusc. 2600 BCE
- Decline and De-urbanisation of the Indus Civilisationc. 1900 BCE
- Senusret III's Nubian campaigns and administrative centralisationc. 1850 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
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