“Listen up, dear friends. Please drink the Kool-Aid.”

There were countless powerful women in antiquity. I think you will agree that “powerful” does not imply “admirable,” whether regarding men or women. Both of these two women were self-seeking, just like most humans in ancient Ur and ancient Egypt, and down through history to our world today. But, as we shall see, these two women were indisputably powerful queens in antiquity.

Puabi  was Queen of Ur in the third millennium BC and likely reigned alone at least for a season, for the record doesn’t attach a king to her inscriptions. Likewise, Hatshepsut reigned alone as Pharaoh of Egypt in the second millennium BC. We know much less about Puabi, because she reigned in Mesopotamia during the First Dynasty of Ur in 2600 BC, just a few centuries after the big flood mentioned in the Sumerian Kings List and didn’t make the tiny hall of fame of that essentially dark historical period in Mesopotamia. Hatshepsut took the throne in a millennium later in 1468 BC, when the maturing of literacy in the Fertile Crescent was producing copious records.

I have curated a fistful of videos down to a few as follows:

Queen Puabi became famous during Leonard Woolley‘s excavation of Ur started in 1922. My verdict on Puabi was she was a monster, but then I don’t cut much slack for misuse of power or vile traditions. Here are the videos I suggest for this powerful woman: Expedition-Powerful Women of Ur  and Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur.

Queen Hatshepsut left a significant legacy in the 18th dynasty and the material culture of Egypt. She certainly was bold and unconventional in that very conventional kingdom, but I urge you to invest a couple hours in the following splendid video that reveals the recent breakthrough in her cold case: Hatshepsut: Secrets of Egypt’s Lost Queen.

I hope you enjoy the videos.

Thanks for visiting.

R. E. J. Burke