"I Am Enheduanna"

THE WORLD'S FIRST AUTHOR WAS A WOMAN AND A HYMNIST TO THE GODDESS.
DISCOVER HOW SHE WROTE HER WAY INTO HISTORY BOOKS IN THIS ONLINE EXHIBIT.

Welcome to the world of Enheduanna!

 

As a writer, clergyperson, and aspiring public historian, I have been fascinated by the life and work of Enheduanna.

 

Her long-lasting literary and spiritual legacy has survived for more than four thousand years! It is amazing to realize that Enheduanna's work came before all other famous writers whose names are a little more recognizable, like Sappho and Homer. Her spiritual contributions came before the creation of the Hebrew Bible.

 

It is my hope that this exhibit shines a light on her important contributions.

 

This exhibit is offered in four main parts:

 

MEET ENHEDUANNA:

Author, hymnist, poet, priestess, and princess. Learn more about her life through her own words, left behind in hymns, and through a look at her life and times in ancient Mesopotamia.

 

THE POWER OF ANCIENT WRITINGS:

Enheduanna's works have remained available for thousands of generations because she wrote them in cuneiform, literally putting her words in stone.

 

EXCAVATION OF UR:

A look at how the world came to know so much more about her culture and why this important archeological dig brought Enheduanna's true place in writing history to light.

 

THE EXALTATION OF INANNA:

An illustrated version of the full text of this prominent and long-lasting hymn written and signed by Enheduanna.

 

Also, you will find these extra features:

 

ENHEDUANNA'S ENDURING LEGACY:

She lives on in books, journal articles, newspaper articles, and museum exhibitions.

 

MODERN MESOPOTAMIA:

See the area Enheduanna once called home. It is now modern Iraq but traces of her life and culture live on.

 

WRITER'S PRAYER TO A SCRIBAL PRIESTESS

I also wrote a parting prayer to honor Enheduanna and to ask for her blessings.

 

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Annabel Du Boulay, of The Avalon Rose Chapel®, for introducing me to Enheduanna and inspiring me to want to research her further. She showed me the spiritual path of Enheduanna and the power of the Goddess in Mesopotamia. She revealed the importance of cuneiform and the meaning of the Ziggurat. Her teachings led me to find my own voice in weaving ancient wisdom into modern presentations and her scholarship on these topics inspired me to return to graduate school for further studies.

 

I would like to thank the author and teacher Starhawk for sharing her historical insights into Enheduanna and for identifying her as the "first liturgist" to the Goddess in her Learn with Starhawk ritual class. I had never heard Enheduanna described that way and it inspired me to look more deeply into the history of the earliest spiritual writings.

 

I send a shout-out and thank all my professors and school colleagues in our class, Exhibition: Planning and Interpretation. This online exhibition is my final project and I am hoping people find it educational and interesting!

 

Finally, I would like to thank every organization that has allowed me to use their images and all the scholars and experts whose work is quoted on these pages. An extra special thank you to Balage Balogh of ArchaeologyIllustrated.com for granting me permission to use his beautiful images of Enheduanna and her father, Sargon, that start off the exhibit.

 

Thank you for visiting!

 

Blessings,

Laurie Sue

Public History Graduate Student

May 2022