Who Was the First Female Ruler?

“In Kish, Kubaba, the beer-brewer, she who laid firm the foundations of Kish, became king. She reigned for a hundred years.” 

These words, inscribed in a clay tablet known as the Sumerian King List, provide the first recorded mention of Kubaba, the ancient warrior queen—and possibly, the first female ruler. As the story goes, Kubaba’s path to the throne was a rags-to-riches tale, a Mesopotamian Cinderella-like epic that ultimately enshrined her as a goddess for years to come. 

But historians continue to debate her existence. Was Kubaba in fact history’s first recorded female ruler or is her life merely the stuff of tall tales and legends?

The Sumerian King List tells us Kubaba lived sometime in the third millennium B.C. in the city of Kish, located in modern-day Iraq. Various sources describe her as working as an innkeeper, barmaid, beer-brewer or even the madame of a brothel around 2450 B.C. However, some scholars speculate that her association with sex work may have been fabricated by enemies in an attempt to besmirch her reputation. While modern readers may interpret “tavern-keeper” as an indication of Kubaba’s low birth, theologian Carol R. Fontaine writes that ancient Sumerians would have seen work with alcoholic spirits as a “divine association,” including temple offerings to the fertility goddess Ishtar. 

The ancient accounts claim Kubaba didn’t inherit the throne through bloodline, and she didn’t take a feminized title of queen. Instead, she claimed the title of “lugal,” traditionally used by male kings. Some accounts say her reputation as a successful and generous businesswoman endeared her to the local populace, who in turn paved her path to the throne. Others say she seized power violently with “the bow of battle.” 

Once in power, Kubaba cemented her reputation as a brave but benevolent ruler. She protected Kish with military might and expanded the borders of the city-state. A contemporaneous religious chronicle tells a story illustrating Kubaba’s priorities as queen. While in power, she provided bread and water to her local fishermen. In exchange, she asked that they restore offerings to the temple of Marduk, the god of the city of Babylon. Marduk, seeing Kubaba’s tribute, “favored her and…entrusted to Kubaba, the tavern-keeper, sovereignty over the whole world.” According to the Sumerian King List, her son and grandson later ruled Kish after her death.

In the centuries after her rule, Sumerians worshiped a goddess named Kubaba, as evidenced by carvings and temple art in Carchemish, a city on the banks of the Euphrates River. The birth of an intersex child was seen as an “omen" linked to this goddess. It's possible such a birth could have been interpreted “as opening the possibility of a woman becoming king,” writes scholar Marten Stol. 

But historians must scrutinize religious texts and the Sumerian King List itself isn’t the most reliable of sources. Historians are skeptical ancient kings could have indeed ruled for thousands of years, or even 100, as the list claims Kubaba did. Some versions of the list don’t make mention of individual rulers, and others add embellishments, only further clouding the certainty of Kubaba’s story. While she is often recognized as the first recorded female ruler, other notable women in ancient history include the Egyptian pharaohs Sobekneferu, Hatshepsut and Tausret.

Whether her life was fact or legend, the name Kubaba prompts deeper exploration into the lineage of Mespotamian rulers, the dynamics of femininity and the power women held in the ancient world.