Born: Unknown (circa 2600 BCE), Iraq
Died: Unknown (circa 2600 BCE)
Country most active: Iraq
Also known as: Shubad or Shudi-Ad
This biography was originally published in the World History Encyclopedia and was written by Joshua J. Mark. It is shared in line with the Encyclopedia’s policies under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Puabi is only known from the 20th-century discovery of her tomb. Queen Puabi’s remains were uncovered by the British archaeologist Leonard Wooley at the site he called the Royal Cemetery at Ur in 1922, one of the greatest archaeological finds in history but overshadowed by the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun the same year. She is best known for her headdress of golden leaves, ribbons, and strings of carnelian and lapis lazuli beads.
Wooley excavated many fascinating and historically valuable artifacts from her tomb and, among them, her cylinder seal – which essentially served as one’s personal identification in Mesopotamia – identifying her as a queen without mention of a male consort. Archaeologists and historians have concluded that she most likely ruled in her own right as Queen of Ur in the late Early Dynastic II (2750/2700-2600 BCE) or in the Early Dynastic III (2600-2350 BCE) period. The number of servants and attendants buried with her, along with her vast wealth, attests to a powerful and affluent monarch.
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Sometimes archeological research yields up to us only the name and a few details of the life and appearance of personages of the Ancient World. By the very fact of mementos of these people being found, we may assume that they influenced the civilization of their times. Such a person is Shub-Ad of Ur. Ur, as we remember, is the city which Abraham was proud to claim as his home, and we can understand his pride now that we know
more of the remarkable culture which the people of Ur had developed. Shub-Ad is very nearly the earliest queen of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley whose name we know.