- published: 13 May 2011
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Puabi (Akkadian: "Word of my father"), also called Shubad in Sumerian, was an important person in the Sumerian city of Ur, during the First Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2600 BCE). Commonly labeled as a "queen", her status is somewhat in dispute. Several cylinder seals in her tomb identify her by the title "nin" or "eresh", a Sumerian word which can denote a queen or a priestess. The fact that Puabi, herself a Semitic Akkadian, was an important figure among Sumerians, indicates a high degree of cultural exchange and influence between the ancient Sumerians and their Semitic neighbors.
British archaeologist Leonard Woolley discovered the tomb of Puabi, which was excavated by his team along with some 1800 other graves at the "Royal Cemetery of Ur" between 1922 and 1934. Puabi's tomb was clearly unique among the other excavations; not only because of the large amount of high quality and well-preserved grave goods, but also because her tomb had been untouched by looters through the millennia.
She was also buried with 52 attendants — retainers who are suspected to have poisoned themselves (or had been poisoned by others) to serve their mistress in the next world. The amount of grave goods that Woolley uncovered in Puabi's tomb was staggering: a magnificent, heavy, golden headdress made of golden leaves, rings, and plates; a superb lyre (see Lyres of Ur), complete with the golden and lapis-lazuli encrusted bearded bulls head; a profusion of gold tableware; golden, carnelian, and lapis lazuli cylindrical beads for extravagant necklaces and belts; a chariot adorned with lioness' heads in silver, and an abundance of silver, lapis lazuli, and golden rings and bracelets.
Wie wöhr't met nem Breef,
en dämm nix als de Sonn sching.
vierundzwanzich karötijem, pure Aujust
met Horizonte wolkelos un blau-blau,
einem janz ohne Bitterkeit,
janz ohne Frust.
Vun einem, dä uptank
endämm'e sich omluhrt
en rosa Brill ahn,
alles opsauch wie 'ne Schwamm.
Ich däät es janz jähn ens versööke,
ob ich sujet övverhaup noch kann.
Ne Breef voll Feijebäum, Zypresse un Pin'je,
nem Huus wie'n Mexiko.
Huh bovven om Birch,
zahnlose Hirte, die schon janz fröh am Morje
all Schoofe'n Zeeje verfluche
un'ner winzije Kirch,
die'n schwazze Oma blitzeblank hällt
un et nie ussjonn löht:
Dat ewije Leech.
Bunte Stöck am Strand,
wo Färv met omjerührt wood,
öm Boote ahnzomohle un'nem Fescherjeseech.
Dä Breef jing ahn dich un ahn die,
vun der'sch su off sing,
die niemals met der Meute bellt,
die suvill anders als suvill andre,
die nix versprich un trotzdem alles hällt.