Relief of the goddess Kububa, holding a pomegranate in her right hand and a mirror in her left hand; orthostat relief from Herald's wall, Carchemish ; 850-750 BC; Late Hittite style under Aramaean influence. Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara, Turkey
The Sumerian King List purports to list all the rulers of Sumer—the “Cradle of Civilization”—going back 400,000 years. That’s a really really long time. In fact, scientists generally agree that humans are maybe 160,000 years old.
And yet there’s also general agreement that the King List is historically accurate—except for the parts that predate what we know of history. Those are classified as myth. For instance, the King List begins thus:
“After the kingship descended from heaven … Alulim became king; he ruled for 28,800 years.”
Scientists have two problems with that statement:
1. Unlike the Sumerians, they don’t believe that kings came down from “heaven.”
2. They’re skeptical that Alulim ruled for 28,800 years.
And then it doesn’t help that Alulim’s successor, Alalngar, ruled for 36,000 years. Anyway, this kind of thing went on for a long time, if you can believe the King List. You can see the list here if you like.
And in all that time, in 400,000 years of Sumerian history, there is only one known female ruler—so you know she had to kick ass. Her name was Kubaba, or Kug-Bau, “the woman tavern-keeper, who made firm the foundations of Kiš.” Yep, that’s right; she was a tavern-keeper. And she overthrew a nasty tyrant to bring peace and prosperity to the land. This was back around 2500 BC. The King List says she ruled for 100 years.
Her son Puzur-Suen ruled for 25 years, and his son Ur-Zababa (great name!) ruled for 400 years. Supposedly, Ur-Zababa lived to regret choosing as his cupbearer the guy destined to become Sargon the Mighty, but that’s another story. (A cupbearer, by the way, is a high-ranking, highly trusted official in a royal court, whose duty was to serve the drinks.)
I’ll raise my glass to Kubaba, the only queen in 400,000 years of kings.