Queen Puabi - A Female 'King Tut'?

Queen Puabi's headdress, found at the Royal Tombs of Ur (Harms, 2000).

       Queen Puabi was a small woman, less than 5 feet tall, yet she is thought to have a high place of power in the Sumerian city of Ur, in present day Iraq, 2,600 BC, and whose burial is said to have even rivaled the discovery of King Tutankhamen tomb in Egypt (Harms, 2000). Queen Puabi's elaborate burial in the Royal Tombs at Ur held extensive and expensive artifacts, such as the beautifully worked gold pieces of her headdress, shown above, and gold vessels, shown below, as well as contained 21other individuals, presumed to have been sacrificed to accompany her into the afterlife. The sacrificed individuals, 5 guards, 4 grooms, and  12 other attendants, are also decked out in jewelry and appear to have taken part in an elaborate funerary feast just before their deaths (Harms, 2000).

  Gold vessels found in Queen Puabi's Tomb.  

   More about the Royal Tombs of Ur and Queen Puabi may be
 found in a video by the Pennsylvania Museum at the following link.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4uuoHc6k9w

          Puabi's high status was established by the presence of such wealth, as well as the cylinder seal found in association with her grave (Parchin, 2010).  While archaeologists may use such titles as queen or princess to hype a particularly lavish tomb or burial and to convey the high status such wealth implies, this may not be an accurate assumption. The title of queen is established by the cylinder seal found with her, shown below, as it carries the words Pu-abi-nin, with nin interpreted as queen or lady.  This may not necessarily be a correct interpretation of  Puabi's social position, as she may also have been a high priestess in the cult of Inanna, though the two positions may not be exclusive to one or the other (Cylinder seal of Puabi, n.d.). If she is indeed a queen, the lack of mention of her husband's name on the cylinder seal may indicate that she was a queen which ruled in her own right (Parchin, 2010; Queen Puabi, n.d.).

Lapis lazuli cylinder seal, found in association with the tomb,
inscribed with the words Pu-abi nin (nin meaning queen or lady)
(Cylinder seal of Puabi, n.d.).

       Personally, I feel that the fact that archaeologists did not find evidence of Puabi's husband supports that she was a high priestess, rather than an independent queen. Being a priestess she would be recognized in her own right and may not have married. A high priestess would also hold a very high place in society, which would explain her lavish grave goods. Rethinking Puabi's designation as a queen makes me question archaeology's use of the terms of queen and king, princess and prince, which places our own perceptions and biases onto the roles these people carried out, as this may create erroneous visions of past cultures, placing our own experiences onto it.



The following is a video, by the  Pennsylvania Museum, of conservators reconstructing Queen Puabi's headdress and jewelry for display (Queen Puabi, n.d.).

                                                                  References

Cylinder seal of Puabi, n.d. [online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4uuoHc6k9w&feature=related> [Accessed 21 March 2012].

Harms, W., 2000. ‘Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur’ opens saturday. [online] Available at: <http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/001019/ur.shtml> [Accessed 21 March 2012].

Parchin, S., 2010. Extreme makeover: Queen Puabi lecture at Penn Museum [online] Available at: <http://artmuseumjournal.com/queen_puabi_lecture.aspx> [Accessed 21 March 2012].

Queen Puabi, n.d. [online] Available at: <http://www.penn.museum/sites/iraq/?page_id=28> [Accessed 21 March 2012].