The Sumerian king list contains a single woman as ruler, called Kubaba (or Kugbau). She is sometimes listed as her own dynasty and sometimes combined with the 4th Sumerian dynasty of Kish (a Sumerian city). Early on she was also worshipped as a goddess. Perhaps frustratingly, perhaps suggesting that her position as queen was relatively unremarkable to the ancient Sumericans and their descendants, there is little evidence for how Kubaba the ruler was viewed at the time. Nor why she continued to be put down on Sumerian king lists kept by various cities.
To make it worse, there are two very different tones and texts that comment upon Kubaba’s rule. In the first cuneiform record, which was a late text that gave the Sumerian king list then commented on the entries, it is mentioned how Kubaba became queen after being an alewife (or tavern keeper/beer brewer), and then it describes her efforts to properly reinstate the fish sacrifice in the sanctuary of Marduk (the city god of Babylon), for which she was appointed ruler. Basically very similar to the comments on other kings on the Sumerican king list. Kubaba is being presented as unexceptional./p>
In the second cuneiform text that mentions Kubaba, a small omen text, it extremely specifically talks about intersex miscarriages, and that the omen (named for “Kubaba, who once ruled”) is taken to mean “the ruin of the kingdom; a eunuch will rebel against the king.” Not so positive. All this helps explain why what we know about Kubaba is contadictory, uncertain, and very intriguing!
