Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 38:3 (Summer 2024)
Article: The First Named Writer In History: Enheduanna (2334–2279 BC)
Author: Susy Flory

PP 38:3 (Summer 2024) p. 3

The First Named Writer In History: Enheduanna (2334–2279 BC)

Susy Flory

Susy Flory is in a doctoral program at Houston Theological Seminary and holds an MA in New Testament Studies from Northern Seminary near Chicago, Illinois. She is author or coauthor of seventeen books, including two New York Times bestsellers, and founder of the nonprofit organization West Coast Christian Writers.

I first met Enheduanna in 2023 at the Morgan Library in New York at “She Who Wrote,” a major exhibition centered around her writing. I will never forget the moment I walked through the door into a gallery filled with beautiful objects representing Mesopotamian women who lived and breathed before most of the history I am familiar with. The Morgan Library and Museum’s notable collection of cuneiform seals and clay tablets from Mesopotamia formed the core of the exhibition, enhanced by exhibits loaned from museums worldwide. The principal writer featured in the exhibition was Enheduanna—a Mesopotamian princess, priestess, and author. I walked through the exhibit as if I were in a dream. Could this be true? The first named writer in human history was a woman? I felt unsteady, my views of ancient women breaking and reforming right there in the grand rooms of the Morgan. For me, in the annals of ancient history, the words “woman” and “writer” had never belonged together before.

The question of whether ancient women were writing and communicating within their cultures’ forms of publication and distribution is a high-stakes one, with implications for women’s written, spoken, and editorial contributions from the time of Enheduanna, through the writing of the books of the Bible, to the early church, and especially for contemporary Christian women who write, speak, or teach.

Enheduanna And Her Writing

The compiler of the tablet [is] Enheduanna.

My lord, that which has been created [here] no one has created [before].1

(concluding lines of The Temple Hymns)

Enheduanna (2334–2279 BC) was a Mesopotamian princess and high priestess, the daughter of Sargon of Akkad, also known as Sargon the Great. She lived, worshiped, and wrote over 4,200 years ago, well before other ancients such as Hammurabi, Pharaoh Tut, or the biblical Moses. She left behind a literary legacy of poetry, prayers, hymns, and a personal narrative that in places reads like a memoir. Enheduanna’s writing is emotional, engaging, and intense, rich with vivid imagery and metaphor. The quality of her work and the effect it had on me as I stood in the exhibition reading translated passages was unexpected, to say the least. At times I was moved to tears.