Enheduana of Sumer

Léon, Vicki. "Enheduana of Sumer." Outrageous Women of Ancient Times. New York: Wiley, 1998. 49-53. Print.

Enheduana of Sumer was very important in human history. She was the first author, male or female, to write a book using her own name (the first non-anonymous author)! She wrote them almost 4,300 years ago.

 She was the daughter of King Sargon, who established a great Akkadian empire and who appointed her High Priestess to Nanna, the moon-god of Sumer. She kept this position for nearly twenty-five years before her evil nephew replaced her with his own daughter.

She wrote her books on clay tablets with styli made out of reeds, and she wrote them in cuneiform, an ancient alphabet made up of triangles. She was also a poet, and wrote a set of forty-two poems or hymns to the temples of Sumer and Akkad.

Her father, the King, was from a family of Mesopotamian farmers, and was “a humble cup-bearer for the king of Kish.” Nobody knows how he got the throne, but he made a huge empire. He had twin sons and his daughter Enheduana, but his sons made terrible kings.

A lot of this we know thanks to Enheduana’s stories. We owe her so much.

Hammurabi's Code

Landeau, Elaine. "Hammurabi's Babylonia." The Babylonians. Print.

Hammurabi was the king of one of Ancient Mesopotamia’s city-states. He brought all of the city-states together to form one huge empire called Babylonia.

He wanted life to be fair, and so he made a set of laws: Hammurabi’s Code. It had about 280 different laws that dealt with wages, trade, penalties, rent-rates, marriage, divorce, adoption, inheritance, assault, etc. In my opinion, the punishments are a bit too violent, but there are many fair rules too.

Here are some examples:

If a slave strikes a free man, his ear may be cut off.

So a slave punches a farmer, and he loses a limb? That doesn’t seem at all fair to me. However, this one does:

If, due to crop failure resulting from either a flood or drought, someone is unable to pay interest on debt, he may be excused from the interest that year.

There are also a lot of death penalties, which I don’t think helped much. But overall, this code changed humanity forever, and helped us come to where we are today.

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A Day in the Life of a Bronze Age Trader

 I am a male trader in Ur, Mesopotamia, next to the Euphrates River, 3500 B.C. I come from a city where bronze is already being used in many everyday objects - weapons, tools, helmets, shields etc - and it has truly helped everyone. In this city where I hope to sell my goods, bronze is still quite rare, so it will take some convincing to make people buy.

 Bronze is not the only type of good I have in my horse-drawn cart. I have beautiful cloth, pottery,

knives, baskets and spices. I hope to receive food in return.

 I ride through the city gates at around midday, and find my way to a crowded square. Expertly I set up my stand and begin to call out.

 “Goods! Come here to buy goods! Here you will find the finest cloth in Iraq, as well as baskets and pots! Come her for cloth, baskets and pots! And best of all, buy bronze!! Bronze is durable, and can be used to make weapons, tools, helmets, shields, knives...”

 People have started to crowd around. Other merchants, calling out similar advertisements, glare and shout as I attract their potential customers with the mysterious bronze.

 I am surrounded with questions.

 “What is this, then?”

 “We don’t need that, we’ve got copper!”

 “How much is it?”

I have prepared my speech on the way here, so I start to explain in a loud voice:

 “Bronze is better than copper!”

This gets their attention, and the customers start to quiet down.

 “Bronze is more beautiful, more durable, more long-lasting, harder than copper. See my knife!”

I hold up my beautiful bronze knife, decorated with intricate patterns on the handle and a dangerously sharp blade. Many gasp, others begin to whisper to each other. I know how to awe an audience, so I continue in a lower voice.

 “This weapon will probably last years and years, because it is so much harder than copper. These,” I say as I hold up a shield and helmet, “will protect you in battle. See how beautiful they are, too. You should be proud to own these magnificent objects.”

 The crowd starts to get excited.

 “I’ll take the knife!”

 I smile. “What can you give me?”

 “Do you agree to trade it for two pigs?”

 “Three.”

 “Done.”

That marks the beginning of my long day, and many more objects are sold. People especially like the cloth from my city, and are still awed by the amazing metal. It was a good day!