Recently in humanities class I read about Enheduana. Enheduana was a woman who lived around 2300 BC. Her father was King Sargon, an important king who ruled cities like Akkad and Kish in Mesopotamia. She is best known for being the first person to use their name in writing. This is significant not only because of the fact she is the first named writer, but also because at the time, extremely few women knew how to read or write. IN fact, most people were illiterate and literary tasks like recordkeeping in trade were handled by (male) scribes. Enheduana only learned to read because of her father's importance. Her father appointed her as high priestess, which was a very important position at the time.
In the text that I read about Enheduana, there were some questions at the end. Here are the Answers:
1. Books at that time looked a bit like pillows, because they were large clay tablets. They were made by scribes scratching the text into the clay tablet while the clay was still wet, and letting the clay dry.
2. Enheduana and her family lived in a palace in the city-state of Akkad, in Sumer. Her father was the King.
3. Her job was to be the High Priestess to an important god. She did her job by offering prayers and carrying out rituals. She later lost this job when a nephew of her's became king and kicked her out.
4. The author supports the claim that they were so popular that they were like bestsellers by telling that over 50 tablets have been found with one of her poems.
5. Enheduana wrote about how how her father Sargon was revolted against and his city besieged, and how he broke the siege.
This is an image of one of the tablets where one of her poems was written.
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