She Who Wrote: Enheduanna and Women of Mesopotamia, 3400-2000 BC
October 14, 2022 through February 19, 2023

he Morgan Library & Museum proudly presents She Who Wrote: Enheduanna and Women of Mesopotamia, ca. 3400-2000 B.C opening October 14, 2022, and running through February 19, 2023. The exhibition brings together for the first time a comprehensive selection of artworks that capture the rich and shifting expressions of women’s lives in ancient Mesopotamia during the late fourth and third millennia BC. It centers on the high priestess and poet Enheduanna (ca. 2300 BC), the world’s first author known by name, who wielded considerable religious and political power. Displaying a spectacular collection of her texts alongside other works made circa 3400–2000 BC, She Who Wrote celebrates Enheduanna’s poetry and her legacy as an author, priestess, and woman while bearing testament to women’s diverse roles in religious, social, economic, and political contexts—as goddesses, priestesses, worshippers, mothers, workers, and rulers.