This is an alabaster statue in the Louvre Museum. It is 6.5 cm tall (2.56 inches). The statue
was found in the Sumerian city of Girsu. It is dated in the Early Dynastic III Period (ED III, 2600 - 2340 BC). The Louvre labeled it simply as a “female head.” The dark circles around
her eyes represents kohl, which was used throughout the ancient world as an eyeliner.

When I first saw the statue, I believed it was a Sumerian priestess because she seems to be
wearing a circular headband, just like the high priestess of Ninsun; although for a priestess
I thought she was a bit heavy-handed with the makeup.

Then I noticed there are no striations on the hair above her headband. I suspected that she is actually wearing a hat. This was confirmed when I saw a profile view of the statue:

It’s a very distinctive hat. I haven't seen anything like it on a Sumerian woman. The only hat
that is similar is the polos, which was worn by priestesses in the city of Mari (see the page
on The Standard of Mari). But it is not a polos; a polos is taller and rounder, as shown below:

A polos worn by a Sumerian priestess of Mari.

The hat on the statue most closely resembles a shepherd hat, the crown of a Sumerian king. Early versions of the hat had brims that were thick but narrow, like the kind worn by the kings of Uruk, the original shepherd kings.

An early version of a shepherd hat on the "priest-king"
of Uruk. Early versions of the hat closely resembled
the hat of an ordinary shepherd.

Later versions of the shepherd crown were taller and more grandiose, which gave the kings
greater stature and made them seem more regal, such as the crowns worn by Gudea (left)
and Ur-Namma (for further explanation, see The Kings of Uruk).

Of course, it’s possible that the statue is merely a common shepherdess, but there are
several reasons against this assumption:  Sumerian artists didn’t carve stone portraits
of common women, there is no word for “female shepherd” in the Sumerian language,
and the eye makeup indicates she was something more than a common shepherdess
who tended her flocks in the field.

Since this hat looks just like the early versions of the shepherd crown, I suggest that the statue is a portrait of a Sumerian queen.

There's only one problem. The hat designates that she was a reigning monarch, who acted
as a king, but 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 Lagash/Girsu are included on the King List, but neither does a Sumerian
female ruler show up on the separate list of The Rulers of Lagash.

The Sumerian King List records the names of the rulers of Mesopotamia.

If there had been a Sumerian female monarch, she should be on one of the king lists 
because of her uniqueness, so it's unreasonable to assume there was a Sumerian queen
who isn't mentioned on a list.

But there she is:

The statue had eyes of lapis lazuli which I have restored in this picture.

Her shepherd crown, which is exactly the same as the crowns worn by the kings of Uruk, proves that she is a reigning monarch. Since she dates to the ED III period, she is one of the first female rulers in world history.

She is not the only Sumerian female monarch who is not named on the Sumerian King List. Also see An Unknown Sumerian Queen.

August 3, 2022