Who is ku baba

Despite my initial skepticism, after further investigation I finally had to concede that Ku-Baba was a real person who lived and ruled in the city of Kish.

I also conceded that perhaps her parents were tavern keepers, but not Ku-Baba. That makes a big difference. Even if the young Ku-Baba worked in her parents' tavern, under their watchful eyes she did not engage in the lascivious behavior that is generally associated with a stereotypical barmaid.

This is an important consideration, for reasons that I will later explain. It symbolizes the divinity of the goddess Baba. It is not pronounced when the word is said aloud.

Then Akshak was defeated and the kingship was taken to Kish. Ur-Zababa, the son of Puzur-Suen, ruled for 6 years. The King List represents everything we know about Ku-Baba, but from these few words we can surmise several important facts about her: Sargon succeeded Ur-Zababa as the king of Kish in either or BC.

The King List calls her lugal king and not eresh queen. This leaves no doubt that she actually governed the kingdom and she was not merely a regent or a consort of the king. She ruled in her own right. As such, Queen Ku-Baba was the first female ruler in history. Credit for the first female ruler in history sometimes goes to Sobekneferu also known as Neferusobek the female pharaoh who ruled Egypt from to BC. Queen Ku-Baba predates Sobekneferu by more than years.

This means she restored the power and prestige of Kish, the most important city-state in Akkad. We also know Ku-Baba had a very successful reign. It had to be. She was capable enough, and respected enough, to stay in power and establish a dynasty. The dynasty continued for two more generations with her son Puzur-Suen and her grandson Ur-Zababa.

If Ku-Baba was indeed a commoner, then we can safely assume that she was beautiful. A king usually married for money and power. A king could be induced to wed a commoner, and thus forego a more advantageous marriage, only if the woman was extremely beautiful. After all, if a king wanted to marry a commoner, he had his choice among thousands of the most beautiful women in the kingdom.

It's interesting that Ku-Baba was not a mistress or a concubine. The king had plenty of mistresses, but there must have been something extraordinary about Ku-Baba that made the king want to marry her. She was more than just another pretty face. The statue had eyes of lapis lazuli which I have restored in this picture. Although it is highly unlikely that a king would marry a commoner, it is certainly within the realm of possibility.

When they met, Catherine was not only a peasant, she was also a prisoner of war. Peter married her anyway he was well known for acting impulsively. He married her because she was beautiful, but he married her in secret and he did not crown her as queen. He eventually made the marriage public and Catherine was officially crowned as his queen. After Peter died, Catherine ruled Russia in her own right.

This could easily be the story of Ku-Baba. Another possibility is that Ku-Baba was a secondary wife of a king and she became the queen because she was the mother of the king's eldest son. Ku-Baba, the first Cinderella Under the assumption that "the simplest explanation is usually the best". I propose a new theory: Ku-Baba did not marry a king, A rash marriage to a young commoner is not the actions of a reigning king. It was the action of a young prince, a prince in love.

I suggest Ku-Baba married the prince who later became the king. In this way, she would be like Theodora - AD. Theodora was a commoner who married prince Justinian. He later became the emperor of Byzantium. As a commoner who married a prince, Ku-Baba is the first Cinderella in world history. Her husband we don't know his name is the first Prince Charming. This explains Ku-Baba's rise to power. Being a princess taught Ku-Baba how to be a queen.

Being a queen taught her how to be a king. How did Ku-Baba become the king after the death of her husband? When a king dies, the kingship usually passes to his oldest son, or to a rival lord who has an army to back up his claim to the throne. Assuming her son was too young to rule, I suggest there were two reasons why Ku-Baba became the king: 1 She was a shrewd "politician". By this time, she was very wise in the ways of the court, and she managed to persuade the rival lords to support her claim to the throne.

I suggest the commoners loved her beyond all measure. On the King List, some men of lowly professions boatman, weaver, fisherman supposedly became kings. Kingship was usually reserved for the elite nobility.

Then again, perhaps the King List is saying the men of lowly professions were not of royal birth, and they were therefore usurpers, at least in the eyes of the nobility.

However, none of these lowly professions are quite so lowly as a barmaid. Although Ku-Baba worked in her parent's tavern, she was not a "lusty barmaid". I believe Ku-Baba was unfairly characterized as a bawd the usual description of a female barkeeper for propaganda reasons. I believe it was a deliberate attempt to sully her reputation. It is the kind of thing her enemies would say about her. I believe I know who did it. Two clues are given on the King List.

At the time, Ur-Zababa was a vassal king of the Sumerian king Lugalzagesi. Kish, which had been restored to its former glory by Queen Ku-Baba, was once again under the control of the Sumerians. Lugalzagesi had conquered all of Sumer and Akkad, and beyond see Lugalzagesi on this website. Sargon was the Cup Bearer for Ur-Zababa, in charge of the drinks cupboard.

It sounds like a menial job, but it was a position of great responsibility. He chews his lip in apprehension. When King Ur-Zababa heard about this groaning, he was brought into the king's holy presence. Sargon was brought into the presence of Ur-Zababa who said: 'Cupbearer, was a dream revealed to you in the night? She was as firmly set as the base of a wall. For me, she drowned you in a great river, a river of blood.

Sargon usurped the kingdom of Kish from Ur-Zababa after a bloody battle. Ur-Zababa was captured and executed murdered by Sargon. She was capable enough, and respected enough, to stay in power and establish a dynasty.

Tags: 3rd Dynasty of Kish , 4th Dynasty of Kish , Ancient History , beer , carly silver , darci clark , female monarch , feminine , First Woman Ruler , gilgamesh , history , iraq , Jerald Starr , Kish , Ku-Baba , Ku-Bau , kubaba , Kug-Bau , lugal , music , queen , queen ku-baba , sargon , Sargon of Akkad , shepherd hat , siduri , sumer , sumerian , sumerian headband , sumerian king list , Sumerian Shakespeare , tavern keeping , tavern-keeper , Ur-Zababa , weidner chronicle , women.

The first regarding Jerald Starr the eminent sumeriologist that helped me personally to understand the magnificent history of my country. In a fertile area like Kish barley and dates are abundant that may lead us to utilize it commercially in producing beer and wine which needs the workers and the farmers to cooperate in a business which is highly profitable for consumption locally and on neighboring cities specially if it is under the special care of the governing body, that make those people wealthy and socially effective and when Gilgamesh went to Delmon looking for Seosedra he did not contact and asked help except from the local tavern woman Sidori.

We have to think in their social norms because we in our norms can not understand how a priestess offer sex as one of her main duties in temples and how Inanna ask for sex from Gilgamesh, there must be something missing in our understanding of the norms of that culture. Cathy Creswell. Thank you for your insight.

Beer makers relied on barley farmers and date tree owners to supply the ingredients for the beer, new pottery jars bought for a new batch, and the selling and trading of beer for money or goods. The tavern owner would know all these people. The beer makers, the beer seller, pottery maker, barley grower and date farmer. She would know all clients who came from near and far, all the neighbors, the layout of the city or town.

She was a woman who was connected. Reblogged this on tabletkitabesi. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account.

You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Not very much is known about the Sumerian Kings from the early periods, but some records survived. Here is a quote from the Weidner Chronicle , an ancient Babylonian text:.

Kubaba gave bread to the fisherman and gave water, she made him offer the fish to Esagila. But we do know that the Sumerians considered rule to be divine law, and Kubaba would have been granted power of all of Sumer during her reign in the third dynasty of Kish.

Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Carly Silver. History Expert. Carly Silver is an ancient and classical history expert who has served as a tour guide, assistant editor for Harlequin Books, and teacher and lecturer in Brooklyn. Featured Video. Cite this Article Format. Silver, Carly. Kubaba, A Queen Among Kings. An Introduction to Sumerian Art and Culture.

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