What Life Was Really Like For Women In Ancient Mesopotamia

Even though we tend to think of progress on issues of civil rights as a linear progression, ancient Mesopotamia proves that's not always the case. In the earliest culture of Mesopotamia, the Sumerian civilization, women had more rights than under the cultures that came after it. As History on the Net describes, women in Sumer could "own property, run businesses along with their husbands, become priestesses, scribes, physicians and act as judges and witnesses in courts."

The Sumerians even had a woman ruler at one point in their history. The Sumerian Kings List — a part historic, part fantastical, document compiling all the rulers of ancient Sumer — includes the reign of a lone woman who ruled the city of Kish sometime around 2,500 BCE. Her name was Kubaba and not much is known about her other than that she was a tavern keeper before she ruled over Kish. An ancient piece of propaganda describes how the god Marduk took notice of her offering food and drink to men fishing for the god's meal and was so impressed that he "entrusted to Kubaba, the tavern-keeper, sovereignty over the whole world." Her reign was apparently popular, as she became a goddess after her days of slinging ale and ruling cities were behind her.

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