Alabaster plaque (door handle backplate). The door handle fit into the square hole.

Sumerian, from the city of Girsu. Early Dynastic III period (ca. 2700 BC to 2500 BC). Dimensions: 10 x 10 inches (25.4cm), 1.3 inch wide (3.3cm). From the collection of the Barakat Galleries. Enlarge.

For reasons that I will later explain, I call this plaque "The Queen’s Banquet"

The plaque shows a religious festival, a kind of thanksgiving celebration for the Sumerians.
The plaque is divided into three registers:

Top:  A king and queen enjoy a feast while being attended by their servants.

Middle:  Other servants bring more food and wine.

Bottom:  Animals are led to the sacrifice.

During the religious festival, the commoners were also feasting.

There are many other examples of decorative door plaques that show Sumerian kings and queens at a banquet. It was a common motif. The plaques were used to adorn temples and palaces. Five other examples are shown on a separate page. However, none of them are anywhere near as beautiful as the one from the Barakat collection.

At the banquet, a Sumerian king and queen are attended by their servants. We know they
are a king and queen, and not just a lord and lady, because both of them hold a date frond.
As described on the page about Sumerian Plaques, the date frond was a symbol of royalty.
It was used exclusively by the royals. There were many lords and ladies in the kingdom,
but only a few royals. The royals were the members of the kingdom’s ruling family.
As such, they were the only ones who were entitled to carry this symbol of rank.

On all the plaques, every king and queen holds a date frond.

The crown of a Sumerian queen.     

This plaque is different from all the others because it shows the queen wearing her crown.
As explained on the page about Sumerian Queens, this is the first and only example of
a Sumerian queen wearing a crown. Her crown is a variation of the "shepherd crown",
the crown of a Sumerian king.

 The original shepherd crown appeared
 at the very beginning of Sumerian
 civilization.

The queen’s crown was a feminine version of this one. Her crown was meant to look similar the king’s crown, but not the same. Her crown was taller and more rounded. It also resembled a polos, the headdress of a high-priestess.

The crown is smaller than a polos and the hair is worn loose beneath it. The polos is larger and it has a built-in wig. Both the crown and the polos were probably derived from the
same headdress that was worn by women during the early periods of Sumerian prehistory,
at the same time when the shepherd hat became the crown of a Sumerian king.


It’s somewhat surprising that the queen is wearing her crown.

On all the other plaques, neither the king nor the queen wears a crown.

On this plaque, the queen wears a crown, but her husband does not.

That can only mean one thing: She clearly outranks her husband, the king.

She is the ruling monarch in this relationship, not her husband.

Although both of them hold a date frond, the symbol of royalty, she is the only one wearing
a crown, symbolizing her right to rule. She also wears a regal robe.

The queen of Girsu or Lagash?   

This plaque was found in Girsu, so it’s natural to assume that the woman is the queen
of Girsu. On the other hand, Girsu was the holy city for the larger city-state of Lagash.
Many important temples in Girsu were supported by the kings of Lagash, so the woman
may actually be the queen of Lagash.

There’s just one problem:

There is no evidence that a Sumerian female ruler ever existed − not in Girsu, Lagash,
or any other Sumerian city.

An unknown Sumerian female ruler?  

More than three years ago, on the page about the Akkadian queen Ku-Baba, I had written:
“There is no historic record of a Sumerian queen who ruled by her own right. Sumerian
queens were always the wives of kings. They never governed on their own. Sumerian queens had considerable power and influence, but they did not rule the kingdom.

“A ruling queen would be a notable exception to the hundreds of kings in Sumerian history.
It seems there should be some record of her existence – many records, in fact. She would be famous, or infamous, but there are no references to a female ruler in Sumerian history.
More importantly, there is no mention of a Sumerian female monarch on the King List,
the definitive compilation of the kings who ruled in Mesopotamia. For some reason, none
of the kings of Girsu/Lagash are included on the King List, but neither does a Sumerian
female ruler show up on the separate list of the Rulers of Lagash.”

No suspected she even existed...

Yet here she is. She sits on her throne, presiding over the kingdom.

It doesn’t matter if she isn’t mentioned on any king list. She is clearly a reigning monarch.

She rules the kingdom by her own right. In effect, she is the king.

Interestingly, Queen Ku-Baba, the only female monarch named on the King List, is called
lugal (king), and not eresh (queen).

It’s not just the crown that makes her a queen. 

There is additional evidence that proves she is a ruling monarch.

In ancient art, it was common practice to draw a king larger than other men to symbolize his greater importance.

However, on all the other plaques, the king and queen are roughly same size.  

On this plaque, and on all the others, the king and queen are the same height. There is no need to make the king taller than his wife. He’s the king, he is obviously more important,
so it isn’t necessary to belabor the point by making him noticeably larger than his wife.

On this plaque, the queen is intentionally drawn taller than her husband, the king. Physically, she is slightly shorter than her husband, but her crown makes her taller, giving her greater stature (and status). She noticeably exceeds the border of the frame. Her husband only slightly exceeds the border.

In Sumerian art, it means something when a person is drawn large enough to actually exceed the picture frame. It is a deliberate effect that tells the viewer, “This is the most important person in the picture.” In other words, “This is the king.”

 The king on the Standard of Ur.

We know this is a king because he wears the royal kaunakes (a skirt of woolen leaf petals),
he is drawn larger than everyone else, and he exceeds the border of the frame.

 The queen at the banquet.

We know this is a queen because she holds a date frond, she wears a robe and a crown,
she is drawn larger than everyone else, and she exceeds the border of the frame.

This is the first time in ancient history that a woman is drawn taller than her husband to emphasize her greater importance. It might also be the only time.

Clearly, she was born with the titles of nobility that gave her the right to rule. Her husband
was a nobleman who became a king when he married her. It wasn't the other way around.
She didn’t become a queen by marrying a king. She was already a queen. What’s more,
she didn’t relinquish her power after marriage. She maintained her royal prerogatives.

There’s no doubt about it, this is a powerful Sumerian queen. She didn’t just reign, she ruled. She wasn’t just the wife of the king, she ruled by her own right.

The first female ruler in history? 

As a ruling queen in the ED III period (2600 – 2340 BC), she automatically qualifies as one
of the first female rulers in all of history. It’s possible that she predates Ku-Baba, the first known female ruler and the only one mentioned on the King List. Ku-Baba died 31 years before the end of the ED III period. It’s possible that the queen pictured here and Ku-Baba
were near contemporaries. It’s also entirely possible that this queen lived and reigned
before Ku-Baba. In this case, she is the first female ruler in all of human history.

Who is she?  

We don’t know her name. It’s awkward to refer to someone without knowing her name,
so I call her Nin-ensi.

Nin means “a Lady, a noblewoman”. Ensi means “a ruler or a governor”. It is the title given
to the monarchs of Lagash. It basically means “king”. Therefore, Nin-ensi is the Lady King.

This is not a generic portrayal of “some queen”. This is a portrait of an extraordinary woman,
a real-life monarch who lived and reigned more than 4,000 years ago.

She was a woman of wealth and power, and judging by this plaque, she was a woman with exquisite taste in art.


This plaque decorated the door of one room in her palace, perhaps the throne room.

The Queens Banquet. This is the queen at the height of her power and glory.

As a female monarch who lived and reigned at the dawn of civilization, she is one of the
most important women in human history

Also see: Pu-abi, the Queen?

 






January 10, 2020