When we look at a picture of Pu-abi, we see the beautiful headdress and all of the jewelry, but we don’t really see the woman herself. That’s because
we know very little about her, so it is difficult to imagine who she was, or
what she was like.
We know her name only because she was buried with three different cylinder seals pinned to her robe. The cylinder seals were used for personal
identification. They include her name and her royal title (see Footnote 1).
It's unusual for a person to be buried with three
cylinder seals, since only one would suffice. It seems that Pu-abi had a particular reason for
including all three of her seals.
It was her way of saying, “This is who I am."
This is how she presented herself to the gods in the
afterlife.
Pu-abi's cylinder seals:
Taken
all together, the cylinder seals show us Pu-abi the way she saw herself.
This a royal banquet scene, all female. Pu-abi is in the top
register, second from the left. Pu-abi is wearing a robe. The
servants bring wine. Plenty of food is available on the table. Female musicians, including a harpist, provide entertainment for the
guests. Pu-abi's chair is more ornate than the others, indicating that it is a throne.
Here is another banquet scene. Pu-abi is in the top register, third from the left. The servants bring food and wine.
Pu-abi sits on a throne. We know it's a throne because
it is different from the other chairs.
I suggest this is Pu-abi when she was just a princess, because she has no other symbols of rank.
She is drinking beer in the Sumerian fashion, through a long
straw. The straw was used to avoid the dregs at the bottom of the beer and the bitter foam
on top.
This is yet another banquet scene. Pu-abi sits on a throne, attended by her female
servants while her male servants tend to the guests. Food and wine are served,
including a roasted leg of lamb.
Three banquet scenes give the impression that Pu-abi was a regular "party girl." However, banquet scenes were a common motif on cylinder seals. Besides, as we will soon see, there is much more to Pu-abi than meets the eye.
In any case, the three cylinder seals were obviously important to Pu-abi, since they were pinned to her robe for all eternity.
It's interesting to note that the first two seals have a blank space, but no name or title is written there. This means they were not official seals that were used while conducting government business. Instead, the first seal was used for her personal correspondence. The second seal is from her younger years, when she was a royal princess.
The third seal is the most important one. This is Pu-abi's official seal.
This seal has her name on it. Her name is written in the
column, second from the left (2).
Who was she?
We know her name, but we know little else about her.
Beneath her elaborate headdress and her splendid cloak of jewels,
who was Pu-abi?
She lived during the Early Dynastic III period
(ca. 2600 BC – 2350 BC). It’s believed that she was originally an Akkadian, not a Sumerian,
but this has not been proven (3). Pu-abi was less than five feet tall and
she was about 40 years old when she died.
That’s the sum total of everything we know about Pu-abi.
We don't know much about her life, but we know a great deal about
her “afterlife.”
Pu-abi was buried in PG 800 (PG means “Private Grave”) in
the Royal Tombs of Ur. She was surrounded by her personal possessions, the
richest ever found in a Sumerian tomb.
Pu-abi lay on a wooden bier. A gold cup was nearby. She wore an elaborate headdress and the upper part of her body
was entirely hidden by multi-colored beads.
Buried with Pu-abi were the bodies of 26
attendants, male and female, and a team of oxen
harnessed to a ceremonial sledge.
The tomb chamber containing the bodies of Pu-abi and two of her attendants is shown at the top of the drawing. The "Death Pit" (with 24 attendants, a wooden chest, a sledge, and a pair of oxen) is shown at the bottom (4).
Many of the treasures from Pu-abi’s tomb are shown on this
website, see The Royal Tombs of Ur.
Pu-abi: a queen or just a noblewoman?
Pu-abi was obviously a woman of high status, given
the wealth and abundance of her grave goods and the number of people
who were sacrificed to serve her in the afterlife.
Although Pu-abi was a woman of high status, was she
actually a queen?
Pu-abi is commonly called a queen, but we don’t know this for
certain. There has been a lot of speculation on the subject for the last 100 years. We don’t know for
sure whether she was queen or just a high-born noblewoman. It has also been
speculated that she was a high-priestess.
Pu-abi’s official title is written on the upper left corner of
her cylinder seal, so it should be obvious who she is.
Unfortunately, we cannot read the sign because of the
vagaries of Sumerian writing, since all cuneiform signs have multiple meanings and
pronunciations.
This sign can be nin, “a Lady, a titled noblewoman.”
It can also be ereš (pronounced “eresh”) meaning “a queen."
It means Pu-abi was either a Lady or a queen. As
such, she could also be a high-priestess.
I always thought Pu-abi was all three − a Lady, a priestess, and a
queen. She was certainly a Lady, a titled noblewoman,
when she was a royal princess. She was probably the wife of a king, and she was therefore a queen, and she was
possibly a high-priestess, since only women of the high nobility were
appointed to this exalted position.
Still, I was merely guessing, just like everyone else.
Without any collaborating evidence, we cannot be absolutely certain whether the sign
means that Pu-abi was a queen or just a noblewoman.
A
few days ago, I realized there is another way to prove that Pu-abi was indeed a queen.
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 date clusters. As described on a separate page, the date cluster was
a symbol of royalty and the divine right to rule. It was used exclusively by kings and queens. Mere lords and ladies were not entitled to carry this exalted symbol of rank.
On the banquet scenes mentioned earlier, none of the lords and ladies hold a date cluster. This right was reserved only for kings and queens.
On the page about The Divine Right to Rule in Ancient Mesopotamia, there are many examples that show Sumerian kings and queens at a banquet. It was a common
motif during the Early Dynastic period.
On all the plaques, every king and queen holds a date cluster.
While researching the page about the Unknown Sumerian Queen,
I came across a copy of Pu-abi’s cylinder seal.
Then I realized something:
I noticed that Pu-abi is holding a date cluster, a symbol of
royalty and the divine right to rule.
This proves beyond a shadow of doubt that Pu-abi was indeed a queen.
This is the collaborating evidence that was needed to
confirm the meaning of the sign that is written next to her name.
This sign doesn't mean nin, “Lady." It means eresh,
“Queen.”
I once wrote, “It is unlikely that Pu-abi was a
queen in the modern sense of the word, meaning 'a ruler,'
because there aren't any known examples of the Sumerians being
ruled by a woman, although it’s possible that she was the wife of a
ruling monarch, and thus a queen in that regard.”
I recently had to reconsider my opinion. I now suggest Pu-abi wasn’t just the wife of a king, she was a
reigning queen in her own right.
Pu-abi, a ruling monarch.
Look at this banquet scene.
The king and queen hold date clusters, meaning they are
royals. However, only the queen is wearing a crown, symbolizing her right to
rule. She is also drawn taller than her husband, symbolizing her greater
importance. In fact, she actually exceeds the border of the frame.
She clearly out-ranks her husband, the king. She is the ruling sovereign in this picture,
not her husband.
She was a queen in her own right. She wasn’t just the wife of
the king, she was the reigning monarch.
Now look at the seal of Pu-abi.
Pu-abi holds a date cluster, but the man sitting in front of
her doesn’t have one, and he has no other symbols of rank. This means Pu-abi
is a royal, but he is not. He is definitely a nobleman (because he is a guest sitting in the presence of the queen while the servants must remain standing), but he
is not a king, he is not her husband.
Pu-abi is the only sovereign in this picture. We know this
because she sits on a throne, she wears a regal robe, and she holds a date cluster. This
is Eresh Pu-abi, Queen Pu-abi.
It means Pu-abi wasn’t just a queen by virtue of being
married to the king. She was a queen in her own right. She ruled the kingdom as
the only reigning monarch.
There is something else to be considered...
Pu-abi
was less than five feet tall, but she was every inch a queen.
A
priestess didn’t dress this way, neither did a noblewoman. Only a queen dressed
this way, making it impossible for another woman to be attired in greater splendor. No other woman could ever out-shine Queen Pu-abi.
Now the question is: How did Pu-abi become the reigning monarch?
There are two possible scenarios. The first one is the most obvious: She inherited the crown from her husband.
Scenario 1. Pu-abi, the widow of a king:
It’s been speculated that Pu-abi’s husband was buried in the
King’s Grave (PG 789). It was a lavish burial, involving the sacrifice of 63
attendants to serve him in the afterlife. Perhaps he died before Pu-abi, since
her tomb is adjacent to the King's Grave. In other words, the king died and Pu-abi
became a widow (5).
This scene occurred moments before the attendants were entombed in the King's Grave.
Usually when a king dies, the kingship passes to his son,
or to his nearest male relative, or to a rival lord who has an army to back up
his claim to the throne.
The widow of the dead king usually had only two choices: either forced retirement if her son became the king, or exile if a rival lord took over. A hostile lord may even execute a queen and her children to end any pretensions they had about reclaiming the throne.
Yet somehow Pu-abi managed to hang on to power and become
the sole monarch.
After the king died, probably without a suitable heir (either
he had no sons or they were too young to rule), Pu-abi defied convention and
made her own bid for the throne. We cannot be certain how she did this.
Perhaps she did some clever backstage maneuvering to gain the support of a
majority of the rival lords. Perhaps like Catherine the Great she appeared before the Imperial Guards and asked for their help. Perhaps like Hatsheput she
usurped power from her own stepson who was not old enough to rule.
In any case, Pu-abi became the sole ruler of the kingdom after the death of her husband.
This scenario makes the most sense according to the usual course of history and the laws of royal succession.
Nonetheless, this is just speculation. There is no direct evidence to support it. Perhaps this scenario makes the most sense, but it cannot be proven.
However, if you look at the available evidence, a different scenario presents itself:
Pu-abi did not inherit the kingship from her husband, she inherited it from her father.
Scenario 2.Pu-abi, the daughter of the king.
In all the other banquet scenes, the king and queen are a “royal
couple.” Although
a king outranks a queen, pictorially they are shown together as
equals. Both of them are drawn equally tall.
In this banquet scene, the queen's husband is a king, but she
clearly outranks him. She is portrayed taller than him to symbolize her greater importance. She also wears a crown, whereas he does not. She is the one with the royal title that gives her the
right to rule. She did not become a queen by marrying her husband. She was already a queen, meaning she inherited the royal title from her father.
On Pu-abi’s seals, there are no kings at all. Pu-abi is
never shown in relation to a king.
Top: The seal of Lady Pu-abi (Nin Pu-abi), the royal princess. Middle: The
personal seal of Queen Pu-abi, the woman herself. Bottom: The official seal of
Queen Pu-abi, the ruling monarch.
These three seals were important to Pu-abi. They were meaningful
to her. That is why they were pinned to her robe when she was buried. If Pu-abi had ever been married, her
husband would appear on at least one of the seals.
The fact that he doesn't appear means Pu-abi did not inherit the crown from her husband. If she did, then her power and her right to rule would derive from her husband’s royal title. In
this case, her husband would definitely appear as the king on one of the seals, illustrating the legitimacy and continuity of her own reign.
This is especially true if Pu-abi was originally an Akkadian. As a foreigner, her right to rule would entirely depend on her marriage to a Sumerian king.
The fact that her husband the king does not appear suggests he did not exist − because Pu-abi never married.
Pu-abi did not inherit the crown from her husband, she inherited it from her father, and she ruled the kingdom without the aid (and interference) of a husband.
In this way, Pu-abi was like Elizabeth I of England.
This is shown on her official seal:
There is no king in this picture. It means Pu-abi governed by herself. In effect, she was the king. She alone ruled the kingdom, just like Elizabeth.
It is said that Pu-abi's name means "word of the father." If true, this is Pu-abi's justification for her right to rule. She is the sole successor to her father, the king.
Pu-abi
was also a high-priestess. As described on a separate page, every Sumerian queen was the high-priestess of an important temple. This also gave the queens an aura of divinity.
Speaking of which...
Pu-abi, the goddess.
It has never been mentioned before, but the fact that human beings were sacrificed to serve Pu-abi in the afterlife indicates that she was a living goddess. Sumerian kings and queens believed they had a "divine right to rule." They took this belief literally. The date cluster indicates they were ordained by the gods to rule. They were either raised to divine rank by the gods, or they were descended from the gods themselves. That is why they felt justified in sacrificing mere mortals to serve them in the afterlife.
As a reigning monarch in the Early Dynastic III period (ca. 2600
BC – 2350 BC), Pu-abi is possibly the first female ruler in world history. The Akkadian queen Ku-Baba is the first female ruler in recorded history (she is actually called a king, leaving no doubt that she ruled the kingdom). Ku-Baba is the only female ruler who is officially acknowledged on the Sumerian King List. Another possibility for the title of the world's first female ruler is the woman I call Nin-lugal, The Unknown Sumerian Queen. She appears several times on this page.
So... who came first?
Ku-Baba died 31 years before the end of the Early Dynastic III period. This means Pu-abi may have predated Ku-Baba by a considerable margin.
The dates given for Nin-lugal are 2700 BC - 2500
BC. I
think the dates are too old. I believe Nin-lugal lived at the very the end of the ED III period (2350 BC), after Ku-Baba.
So, Pu-abi may predate both of them. Although Ku-Baba is still officially the first female ruler in recorded history, Pu-abi may actually be the first.
We don’t know how long she ruled, but when Pu-abi died, she
died like a queen.
The funeral procession of Queen Pu-abi.
When Pu-abi was buried, she was surrounded by her riches and
she had many attendants to serve her in the afterlife.
The opulence of her tomb, and the human sacrifices, are enough to prove that Pu-abi was indeed a powerful queen. This was not the burial of a mere noblewoman.
In conclusion...
Pu-abi’s cylinder seals tell us she was not only a Lady, she
was a queen. She was not only a queen, she was a ruling monarch. She was not only a ruling monarch, she is possibly the first female ruler in all of human history.
The sacrifice of men and women to serve her in the afterlife tells us she was also a goddess.
Pu-abi: a princess, a queen, a priestess, a king, and a goddess.
PG
800, the tomb of Pu-abi. 
