Hi everyone!
Thanks for joining me for season two of Unruly Figures. A lot of new subscribers have also joined us since our last episode. If that’s you—welcome! You can learn more about me and this podcast if you’re interested.
As you might have seen last week, I am making some changes to Unruly Figures! The biggest and best is that the podcast is now available for free to everyone. Though this podcast is expensive and time-consuming to make, I don’t believe that information or knowledge should ever be kept behind a paywall. It’s elitist and unfair and that’s not what we’re about here! I’m able to do this because of the amazing support from paid subscribers who believe that knowledge should be accessible (and who want the cool behind-the-scenes stuff I make for subscribers as well). If you also believe that, you can upgrade to paid right now, which would be pretty cool of you. You’ll get a shout-out in the next episode!
If you can’t afford that right now, no worries. Enjoy this episode on Queen Kubaba! It’s a short one, but as the earliest known female ruler in history, I think she’s pretty cool.
🎙️ Transcript
Hey everyone, welcome to season two of Unruly Figures, the podcast that celebrates history’s greatest rule-breakers. I’m your host, Valorie Clark, and I’m so happy to be back in the saddle recording a new episode for you all! You might notice a few changes around the podcast this season–I’ve changed the subscription structure on Substack, and I’ll be introducing interviews with historians and other experts along the way. Naturally, I have to thank you all for making season one of Unruly Figures such a success–it means a lot that you all listen! And I also need to give a huge thank you to all the paying subscribers on Substack who make this podcast possible: Katie, Ana, Hunter, Jim, Daniel, Casey, John, Andrew, Stefan, Skyler, Elizabeth, Honor, Michael, and Reda. Y’all are the best. If you want to support Unruly Figures and my mission to make exciting history more available to folks, you can do that at unrulyfigures.substack.com That’s also where you’ll find episode transcripts, photos, and more.
All right, let’s hop in! Today I’m going to be covering one of the earliest rulers in history: Queen Kubaba. She is history’s earliest known female ruler, the only woman to be named on the Sumerian King List, and one of very few women to have ever ruled Mesopotamia in her own right. All of this was happening around 25th century BCE. She ruled either in the third dynasty of Kish. Her epithet on the King List remembers her as, quote, “the woman tavern-keeper who made firm the foundations of Kish.”1
You might be wondering, “What is the King List and is it still being updated?” The answer to the second half is no, but the list itself is composed of several clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform writing. Put together, the lists contain records of all the rulers of Mesopotamia, grouping them into family dynasties and tracking the rise and fall of various city-states. For a long time, the King List was taken as face value, but to be honest the reliability of it has lately come into question. As we’ll see, the lengths of reigns on the list are occasionally fanciful at best–some rulers on it apparently ruled for thousands of years. These time spans possibly represent something like cultural markers of importance of the ruler themself, not legitimate lengths of their reigns. The list also isn’t all inclusive–it leaves off key cities in Sumer that we know were significant, which was probably a politically motivated act. But, for our purposes today we can hold on to the fact that the names of rulers were probably substantiated elsewhere.
Now, Queen Kubaba. We know she lived in Kish, Sumer, which today is called Iraq. Kish was an ancient city-state in Mesopotamia. The city-states of Sumeria had a complicated politics of power–the cities struggled against one another, and whoever emerged as most powerful would claim kingship over the other kings of all the cities in Sumeria. They didn’t unseat other kings, but became sort of like kings-of-kings. This was seen as divine will–the gods could give your city power and they could take it away. Kish was the first Sumerian city-state to hold power after a great mythical flood, which I’m sure is a story you’re familiar with. But power eventually moved on and then came back, reflecting military might or economic centers or the will of the gods–whatever you like to believe. So Kubaba ruled during the third dynasty of Kish, or the third time that Kush came out on top in this power struggle. In fact, she is the lone member of the third dynasty, which is a big deal, and I’m going to come back to it. Importantly, the King List refers to Kubaba as lugal, the word for king, not as eresh, the word for queen. This is how we know that she ruled in her own right, she wasn’t just a queen consort.
Unfortunately, not much about her life is known–she did live over 4000 years ago, so it’s to be expected that a lot of detail would be lost to time. But, according to the King List, before ruling Mesopotamia, Kubaba was a brewer and tavern owner. Some might see this as lower class, and in Sumer working in a tavern would later be associated with prostitution, but this wasn’t the case for Kubaba. At the time, beer brewers were actually highly respected business owners in their community. Carol R. Fontaine wrote, “given the association of Inanna-Ishtar [the goddess] with the tavern and the sweet (sexual?) wine to be drunk there, as well as female ownership of taverns and involvement with the process of brewery, we should not assume Ku-Baba to be some sort of prostitute but a successful business woman with divine associations herself.”2
In fact, beer was seen as the beverage of the gods, and a gift from them to humanity. Many beer brewers were women, and they came from all social classes. Because she could have come from any class, it’s very possible that Kubaba was of noble birth, though a lot of people like to emphasize the possibility that she might have been a commoner and that this might have been a rags-to-riches story. This tale might even have been emphasized during the fourth dynasty of Kish, when her son Puzur-Suen and grandson Ur-Zababa ruled after her. The story might have made the populace more supportive of her family’s power because they would see the queen and her line as rising from common ranks–almost as one of their own.
In my research, I saw some people calling her the first Cinderella.3 It’s easy to wonder if Kubaba is similar to the historical Theodora who met a young Justinian when she was a lowly actress and he was a prince–he changed the laws so he could marry her, and they later ruled Byzantium. Did Kubaba marry a prince who became king, only to die and leave her as the ruler? We don’t know anything confirmed about how she came to rule, so it’s certainly possible that it happened in this way, but because there’s also the equal possibility that she came from noble birth, I don’t want to emphasize this rags-to-riches story too much. In fact, because she’s listed as the only member of the third dynasty, I don’t think this story really works. She came to power with Kish’s resurgence in prominence; if she had a husband who died and left her to rule after the city-state had gained power, I would assume that he would have been named alongside her on the King List. One source sort of vaguely says she “seized” the throne, making her a usurper, but it doesn’t give any more detail than this.4 Considering that power in ancient Sumeria transferred through basically repeated usurpations and city-states struggled for dominance, I have to wonder if this seizure of the throne is just an ominous take on how power was already won back then.
Nevertheless, we do have a couple of other ancient sources for her existence, so we know she did exist and rule. On a different version of the Sumerian King List, sometimes also called the “Chronicle of the Single Monarchy,” she’s mentioned again! Quote, “At Kish Kubaba [the innkeeper], the one who strengthened [the foundations of Kish], was [king].”5 Though that source also goes on to say that she reigned 100 years, which is clearly fanciful and propagandistic, it’s at least another record substantiating her ruling status.
The Weidner Chronicle also mentions her. It says, quote, “Ku-Baba gave food (and) water to the [fi]sherman… the fish he delivered with h[aste] to Esagil. The great lord, Marduk, looked upon her with joy and said ‘so be it!’ He handed over to Ku-Baba sovereignty over all lands.”6 The God, Marduk, who the temple at Esagil was dedicated to, was the deity who had established order at the beginning of time, so aligning Kubaba with him might have given her legitimacy similar to the idea of a divine right to rule. Bread and water, of course, are also the ingredients for beer, the divine gift from the gods. So this story and her role as a beer brewer link her with the idea of divine gifts. Some people also think that this story of Kubaba being rewarded with rulership for giving generously was told to encourage other people to be generous as well.7 It was traditional in Sumeria to reward acts of piety somehow, and another article suggests that what the Weidner Chronicle is really saying is that after she made this great donation of beer to fisherman, the mortal king of Akshak, Puzur-Nirah, ceded dominance in Sumer to her.8 Of course, the Weidner Chronicle is viewed by many as, quote, “a blatant piece of propaganda… the whole point of the narrative is to illustrate that those rulers who neglected or insulted Marduk or failed to provide fish offerings for the temple Esagil has an unhappy end.”9
Her rule is characterized by peace and prosperity. Her epithet on the King List says she “made firm the foundations of Kish,” which sounds to me like building projects and developing the economy. The list doesn’t go into detail, unfortunately, but I think we can assume that whatever Kubaba did, it was good for the city. Good enough, in fact, for the real length of her reign to be blurred–the tablet claims she ruled for one hundred years, which we know can’t possibly be factual. It’s more likely that she was so beloved that the length of her reign was extended out of homage to her. Other ancient and beloved rulers on the list have reigns for over 40,000 years, so the length of time certainly reflects the recorder’s view of the ruler as much as real history.
Despite the fact that Kubaba was a well-respected ruler, there were no female Sumerian rulers after her. In fact, men actively discouraged women from ruling, invoking ideas of unnatural behavior. The Sumerian omen of “Ku-Bau (ku-bow-o) who ruled the land” is the birth of an intersex child, which was seen as bad luck because it transgressed roles around sex and gender.10 The omen is understood by some as a response to Kubaba’s reign; it’s worth noting that Kubaba’s name is sometimes written as Ku-Bau. So she’s linked with this supposed bad omen because, as a female ruler, she had blurred the boundaries of sex and gender in quote-unquote “unnatural” ways that the ancient Sumerians might have thought that an intersex child might. It’s not great but then, when is the patriarchy ever?
Even in Sumerian mythology, female goddesses didn’t always have a lot of power. In the story of Nergal and Ereshkigal, the goddess of the netherworld, Ereshkigal, is depicted as powerful and autonomous, but also that this is, quote, “intolerable and unacceptable.”11 She must, because she is a woman, cede the throne to Nergal [her god husband], or at any rate share it with him.”12 Ereshkigal, at some point, offers Nergal both, quote, “unconditional surrender and her hand in marriage;” so we get the picture that the two necessarily go hand in hand.13 So with this as the ruling mythology, it’s not hard to see where these ominous ideas of Kubaba as dangerous would come from.
Kubaba is sometimes confused with a later goddess called Kubaba or Cybele, who guarded a city called Carchemish then later was worshipped in Greco-Roman cults. The confusion is understandable–she was occasionally depicted as a deity in reliefs, and the records say that she ruled for 100 years, which is fanciful and impossible. Some historians suggest that the real ruler was deified after her death because she was so beloved, but there’s a lot of dispute around that because of timing and the way her name would have evolved. According to American archaeologist William F. Albright, the prefix “ku” meant “holy,” adding fuel to the confused conflagration.14 If Kubaba did, indeed, inspire the goddess, then she was seen as a “great mother of the gods” and was worshipped by cults 3,000 years after her death.15
After Kubaba’s reign, however long it may have lasted, rule was transferred to the city of Akshak. But it soon returned to Kish, and her son Puzur-Suen ruled as king for twenty-five years. His son Ur-Zubaba ruled after him for another six years, making her dynasty 131 years long.
And that, short as it was, is the story of Queen Kubaba, the beer brewer who became queen. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Unruly Figures! If you did, please tell a friend about it. You can also let me know your thoughts by following me on Twitter and Instagram as @unrulyfigures, or joining us over on Substack. If you have a moment, please give this show a five star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts–it really does help other folks find this work. Thanks for listening!
📚 Bibliography
Books
Fontaine, Carole R. “Visual Metaphors and Proverbs 5:15-20.” Essay. In Seeking out the Wisdom of the Ancients Essays Offered to Honor Michael V. Fox on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday, edited by Ronald L. Troxel, Kelvin G. Friebel, and Dennis Robert Magary, 185–202. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2014.
Harris, Rivkah. Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia: The Gilgamesh Epic and Other Ancient Literature. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003.
Videos
World History Encylopedia. “Queen Kubaba of Mesopotamia: The Only Queen on the Sumerian King List.” YouTube. YouTube, June 7, 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=KFT5faAzUQA&ab_channel=WorldHistoryEncyclopedia.
Websites
Cottier, Cody. “Queen Kubaba: The Tavern Keeper Who Became the First Female Ruler in History.” Discover Magazine. Discover Magazine, February 23, 2021. https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/queen-kubaba-the-tavern-keeper-who-became-the-first-female-ruler-in-history.
Israrkhan. “Kubaba - the First Female Ruler in History.” Medium. Medium, February 2, 2021. https://israrkhan1112.medium.com/kubaba-the-first-female-ruler-in-history-a8e412b67269.
“Queen Ku-Baba.” Sumerian Shakespeare. Accessed September 20, 2022. https://sumerianshakespeare.com/748301/769001.html.
World History Encylopedia. “Queen Kubaba of Mesopotamia: The Only Queen on the Sumerian King List.” YouTube. YouTube, June 7, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=KFT5faAzUQA&ab_channel=WorldHistoryEncyclopedia.
Fontaine, Carole R. “Visual Metaphors and Proverbs 5:15-20.” Essay. In Seeking out the Wisdom of the Ancients Essays Offered to Honor Michael V. Fox on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday, edited by Ronald L. Troxel, Kelvin G. Friebel, and Dennis Robert Magary, 185–202. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2014.
“Queen Ku-Baba.” Sumerian Shakespeare. Accessed September 20, 2022. https://sumerianshakespeare.com/748301/769001.html.
Harris, Rivkah. Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia: The Gilgamesh Epic and Other Ancient Literature. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003.
World History Encylopedia.
World History Encyclopedia.
World History Encyclopedia.
Israrkhan. “Kubaba - the First Female Ruler in History.” Medium. Medium, February 2, 2021. https://israrkhan1112.medium.com/kubaba-the-first-female-ruler-in-history-a8e412b67269.
Cottier, Cody. “Queen Kubaba: The Tavern Keeper Who Became the First Female Ruler in History.” Discover Magazine. Discover Magazine, February 23, 2021. https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/queen-kubaba-the-tavern-keeper-who-became-the-first-female-ruler-in-history.
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Harris, 140
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