the mountainside. The Akkadian artist adhered to older conventions
in many details, especially by portraying the king and his soldiers in
composite views and by placing a frontal two-horned helmet on
Naram-Sin’s profile head. But the sculptor showed daring innova-
tion in creating a landscape setting for the story and placing the fig-
ures on successive tiers within that landscape. For the first time, an
artist rejected the standard way of telling a story in a series of hori-
zontal registers, the compositional formula that had been the rule
for a millennium. The traditional frieze format was used, however,
for an alabaster disk (FIG. 2-14) that is in other respects one of the
most remarkable discoveries ever made in the ancient Near East (see
“Enheduanna, Priestess and Poet,” above).ZIGGURAT, URAround 2150 BCE, a mountain people, the
Gutians, brought Akkadian power to an end. The cities of Sumer, how-
ever, soon united in response to the alien presence, drove the Gutians
out of Mesopotamia, and established a Neo-Sumerian state ruled by
the kings of Ur. This age, which historians call the Third Dynasty of Ur,
saw the construction of the ziggurat (FIG. 2-15) at Ur, one of the
largest in Mesopotamia. Built about a millennium later than that atI
n the man’s world of ancient Akkad, one woman stands out prom-
inently—Enheduanna, daughter of King Sargon and priestess of the
moon god Nanna at Ur. Her name appears in several inscriptions,
and she was the author of a series of hymns in honor of the goddess
Inanna. Enheduanna’s is the oldest recorded name of a poet, male or
female. Indeed, hers is the earliest known name of the author of any
literary work in world history.
The most important surviving object associated with Enhe-
duanna is the alabaster disk (FIG. 2-14) found at Ur in several frag-
ments in the residence of the priestess of Nanna. The reverse bears a
cuneiform inscription identifying Enheduanna as the “wife of
Nanna” and “daughter of Sargon, king of the world” and credits En-
heduanna with erecting an altar to Nanna in his temple. The dedica-
tion of the relief to the moon god explains its unusual round format,
which corresponds to the shape of the full moon. The front of the disk
shows four figures approaching a four-story ziggurat. The first figure
is a nude man who is either a priest or Enheduanna’s assistant. He
pours a libation into a plant stand. The second figure, taller than the
rest and wearing the headgear of a priestess, is Enheduanna herself.
She raises her right hand in a gesture of greeting and respect for the
god. Two figures, probably female attendants, follow her.
Artworks created to honor women are rare in Mesopotamia and
in the ancient world in general, and Enheduanna’s is the oldest
known. Enheduanna was, however, a princess and priestess, not a
ruler in her own right, and her disk pales in comparison to the mon-
uments erected almost a thousand years later in honor of Queen
Hatshepsut of Egypt (see “Hatshepsut,” Chapter 3, page 68).
Enheduanna, Priestess and Poet
ART AND SOCIETY2-14Votive disk of Enheduanna, from Ur (modern Tell Muqayyar),
Iraq, ca. 2300–2275 bce.Alabaster, diameter 10. University of Penn-
sylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia.
Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon of Akkad and priestess of Nanna at Ur,
is the first author whose name is known. She is the tallest figure on this
disk that she dedicated in honor of the moon god.2-15Ziggurat (northeastern facade with restored stairs), Ur (modern Tell Muqayyar), Iraq, ca. 2100 bce.
The Ur ziggurat is one of the largest in Mesopotamia. It has three ramplike stairways of a hundred steps each that originally ended at a
gateway to a brick temple, which does not survive.Akkad and the Third Dynasty of Ur 411 in.