Kug-Bau (Sumerian) or Ku-Baba (Akkadian) is a “woman tavern-keeper” mentioned in the Sumerian King Lists. She was reputedly a commoner who, due to her deeds of piety and hospitality, was elected by the gods to become a lugal (“mighty man”, i.e. high king) of the Mesopotamian city-state of Kish. She is the sole female ruler mentioned in the SKL. If she was a historical person, then she was the first queen in recorded history, flourishing in the early 24th century B.C. (Middle Chronology).

Not much is known about Ku-Baba. As noted above, she was said to have been a tavern-keeper before her regal endeavors. Perhaps she was a successful businesswoman who rose to prominence through wealth and connections, or perhaps she was exceptionally beautiful and married into a noble family. The SKL credits her with “laying the foundations of Kish”, while later folk-tales and myths stress her benevolent character and everyman aspects. She must have been at least moderately talented at her job — there is no way the traditional élite would have tolerated an incompetent usurpress.

The Kishite dynasty established by Ku-Baba became dominant in Sumer for the time being, but faced competition from the rulers of the rival city-state of Akshak. Later on, she became associated with the confusion of traditional gender roles, such as the birth of intersex children. She was eventually deified and became syncretized with the Anatolian mother-goddess Cybele (perhaps even providing the name).

While there are plenty of texts about Ku-Baba on the web, they mostly just recycle the facts above. People tend to focus on the peculiarity of her character, and the feminist aspect of being the very first female sovereign in the annals of history. At the same time, she was a ruler sufficiently marginal for the general treatises on Mesopotamian history not to consider the question of her historicity. I’ve been unable to locate journal articles dedicated specifically on the matter.

I’m by no means an expert, but my understanding is that the reliability of the Sumerian King List is questionable, with some scholars deeming it a work of fiction that offers no reliable information whatsoever regarding the Early Dynastic chronology. To complicate the matter further, the SKL was composed half a millennium after the supposed reign of Ku-Baba, comes in multiple contradictory recensions, and includes decidedly mythical content such as Antediluvian monarchs with reigns on the order of several dozen millennia. On the other hand, the composers of the SKL had access to earlier sources, mentioning several personages even more ancient than Ku-Baba, but whose historicity has been verified from other sources none the less.

The story of Ku-Baba strikes me as something that might hold water after all. Her grandson Ur-Zababa was an associate (and later an enemy) of Sargon of Akkad, which makes his historicity more or less certain. Furthermore, Ku-Baba’s death is only three decades removed from the beginnings of the Sargonic Empire. The apparent simultaneity of Ku-Baba’s dynasty with that of Akshak is an obvious anomaly in the SKL, which repeatedly emphasizes that kingship is bestowed by the gods and is always held by one and only one city — this might reflect the memory of a real historical conflict.

Finally, I find it implausible that a patriarchal culture hostile to the idea of a female ruler would invent a story of a queen, then portray her in positive light. On the other hand, Ku-Baba’s regnal length of 100 years is obviously mythical, although it might be a symbolic way of saying she was favored by gods (i.e. ruled well), or simply a device to allow for the Akshak dynasty to rise and fall before Ku-Baba’s son ascends the throne.

To make a long story short: Do historians consider Ku-Baba a historical person or a myth, or is her historicity simply unknowable?

EDIT: Here’s Ku-Baba’s likeness as imagined by the 8th century B.C. Hittites who came to worship her: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Kubaba_relief.JPG

EDIT2: Typos and the like.