Who was the world's first author?

The oldest known writing dates back more than 5,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia, in what is now mostly present-day Iraq. But who was the first author known by name?

Archaeological discoveries have revealed the earliest known writing was invented about 3400 B.C. in an ancient Mesopotamian area known as Sumer, near the Persian Gulf, according to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. This writing, known as cuneiform, took the form of wedge-shaped marks made by pressing a pointed tool into wet clay, the British Library notes.

Many people might cite ancient Greek luminaries such as the epic poet Homer, the lyric poet Sappho or the historian Herodotus as the first author known by name, said Erhan Tamur, a postdoctoral curatorial fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. However, preceding those figures by about a millennium was the princess, priestess and poet known as Enheduanna, Tamur told Live Science. 

"By first author, we mean that she is the first author whom we know by name whom we can connect with an existing text," Benjamin Foster, an Assyriologist at Yale University, told Live Science. "For much of Mesopotamian literature, we do not know who wrote it, but she is the exception."

Enheduanna was the daughter of the Akkadian king Sargon, who lived from about 2334 B.C. to 2279 B.C., Tamur said. Tamur is co-curator of an exhibition about Enheduanna, "She Who Wrote: Enheduanna and Women of Mesopotamia, 3400-2000 BC," at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York, which began in October 2022 and runs until February 2023.

By about 2300 B.C., Sargon united the majority of Mesopotamia under his rule when the Akkadian culture of northern Mesopotamia conquered the Sumerians of southern Mesopotamia. This paved the way for the Akkadian Empire, the world's first empire, or collection of states under a single authority, Tamur noted.

Related: Who were the ancient Persians?