More properly, who was the first author who included their name on their work, "signing it"?

The first known, named author, poet, epic-writer, and the first person to attempt to codify theology was...

Princess Enheduanna, High Priestess of the Moon Goddess Nanna in Ur, somewhere around 2250BC. She was the daughter of the founder of the Sumerian dynasty, Sargon the Great, and the daughter, sister, and aunt of kings. She was a very smart, very powerful woman, exiled for her politicking then returned to power.

She is one of the first women in recorded history whose name is known to us today. She is the first woman in history who is known to have been literate (although the Babylonian goddess Nindaba was the gods' scribe, suggesting that this may have been a common noble female role in that culture).

Her surviving works include the epic and autobiographical Exhalation of Inanna, the mythological Inanna and Ebih and the fragmentary Inanna sa-gura and forty-two hymns and poems. It is from Enheduanna that we have a good understanding of Sumerian myth and culture.

Enheduanna means "High Priestess, Adornment of the God". She may also be the first person to use literature as a form of PR. The clay tablets on which she wrote her autobiographical appeal to the gods against unfair exile seem to have played some role in her reinstatement.

She's also the first named woman of whom there is a verified picture/image:



That's her wearing traditional female Sumerian dress, i.e. nothing.

The reason I mention all of this is (a) because I think Enheduanna deserves to be better remembered for her amazing legacy as the first known author and (b) I'm 77,145 words into a novel which features her mother as the heroine.

A very interesting little history lesson, and it sounds like a good subject for a novel indeed!

I can't recall whether I've mentioned my current writing project here. It's a commissioned novel called THE FALL OF BABEL. It's a murder mystery whodunnit set in the Biblical Tower of Babel.

The twist is that the detective is King Nimrod the Hunter, barbarian conquerer of Shinar. He's Conan playing Conan Doyle. His partner-in-detection is Duanna, raised all her life to be a human sacrifice, unexpedly rescued and somewhat between careers. He's a warrior king. She's a sacrificial virgin. Together they fight crime.

Because of the dress codes previously mentioned this may be the only whodunnit where the heroine remains naked for the entire novel.

I'm having great fun juxtaposing the various mash-up styles of detective procedural, political thriller, religious drama, sword-and-sorcery action, and disaster movie. So far our detective has killed six of the suspects.

The themes really write themselves. Babel's fall was because of the "confusing of language", which is really the basis of most modern ideological conflict, many arguments, modern politics and so many more features of life. But it's also the start of storytelling, of history, of fiction and imagination. It's where words began to define reality.

Babel was also where men first tried to replace gods with technology, to insulate themselves from the punishments of God like the Great Flood, and even to invade heaven itself! There are plenty of modern things to say about Babel, and lots of motivations that couldn't happen in any other story set in any other place.

Meanwhile, THE SPIRES OF MARS continues twice weekly at http://www.chillwater.org.uk/writing/blackthorn/spires.htm. All feedback or spontaneous print-edition cover images gratefully received!

She sounds like a fun gal too. We need her to appear in a PVB story now. She can date Visionary perhaps?

Al B.