To Ur is Human - The Oldest Museum in the World

Museums as a societal construct are widely considered to be a Victorian and 18th century idea, stemming from the “collection craze” of the Victorians and the spread of colonialism during the early-modern period of history. The Capitoline Museums in Rome are considered the oldest public museum, when in 1471 Pope Sixtus IV donated some bronze sculptures to the people of Rome, and over several hundred years other popes donated more and more before Pope Clement XII opened it in 1734 to the public for everyone to enjoy (Paul, 2012).

Other collections existed and were open for visitation prior to this date, but as they were privately owned by individuals, the opening time, cost of entry, and number of people allowed to visit was largely down to the collection owner. The British Museum soon followed the Capitoline Museums, opening in 1759 to a small number of visitors each day as it was feared that a large influx would damage the objects on display (British Museum, 2014). The Louvre would open in Revolutionary France in 1793, and over the following century, many more museums would be opened around the word for everything and anything.

However, what if I told you there was a public museum opened two thousand years earlier in the ancient city-state of Ur? Ennigaldi-Nanna, or just Ennigaldi, is the name to remember, for she was the curator and founder of this museum. Daughter of King Nabonidus, last king of the great Neo-Babylonian Empire (León, 1995), Ennigaldi was born in 547 BC and her father is considered the first true serious archaeologist (Anzovin and Podell, 2000), and he taught her to appreciate ancient artefacts. As an antiquarian and antique restorer, Nabonidus taught his daughters what he knew and urged her to set up an antique museum for educational purposes. (Dolezal, 1987).

Figure 1: The ruins of the museum today

In around 530 BC, Ennigaldi set up her museum within the grounds of the palace at Ur. During excavations of the palace in 1925, dozens of artefacts were found neatly arranged side-by-side, with ages varying not by years but by several centuries and even millennia. The most exciting thing of all from this is that alongside the artefacts were clay drums labelling what the artefacts were, who found them, and where they came from! (León, 1995). These drums had text in three different languages, including Sumerian, meaning the text is likely duplicated for visitors who spoke a wide variety of dialects.

Figure 2: One of the clay drums

Many of these artefacts came from southern Mesopotamia, and many had been found by Nabonidus and dated from as early as the 20th century BC! (Dolezal, 1987). Other artefacts had been found by Nebuchadnezzar II (Nash, 2003), Ennigaldi’s grandfather, and others are considered to have been found by Ennigaldi herself. Artefacts include a Kassite boundary stele, a ceremonial mace-head, and even part of a statue of King Shulgi (King of Ur from around 2040 BC) which had been restored to preserve the inscriptions written on it! (Pryke, 2019).

Ennigaldi clearly took her duties very seriously, having clearly and methodically put these objects on display with written labels in several languages, but this is not the full extent of the lengths she went to for this museum. Also found on the site were clay tablets listing each object on display, which would make them the oldest known museum catalogue (Quinn, 2020).

Does this make Ennigaldi’s museum the oldest example of its kind in the world? For me, it ticks all the boxes, and she did a far better job at labelling and cataloguing her objects than some museums do today! While the museum didn’t remain around for long, as Ennigaldi was the only curator and after her death some time around 500 BC or later the museum became disused, it’s clear that her and her family were ancient historians and saw the value of museums as culture, education, and public enjoyment.

Berengar Needham is currently a student on the MA Museum Studies program at the University of Leicester.

References

• Anzovin, Podell. (2000). Item # 1824: "The first museum known to historians (circa 530 BCE) was that of Ennigaldi-Nanna, the daughter of Nabu-na'id (Nabonidus), the last king to Babylonia." pp. 69

• British Museum. (2014). Admission Ticket to the British Museum. Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20140413155944/https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/archives/a/admission_ticket_to_the_britis.aspx

• Dolezal. (1987). "Princess Ennigaldi-Nanna, collected antiques from the southern regions of Mesopotamia, which she stored in a temple at Ur – the first known museum in the world.” pp. 20

• León, V. (1995). Uppity Women of Ancient Times. Conari Press. pp. 36–37. ISBN 1-57324-010-9

• Paul, C. (2012). The first modern museums of art: the birth of an institution in 18th- and early-19th-century Europe. Los Angeles: Getty Publications. pp. 21–25. ISBN 978-1-60606-120-6.

• Pryke, L. (2019). "Hidden women of history: Ennigaldi-Nanna, curator of the world's first museum". The Conversation.

• Quinn, T. (2020). About Museums, Culture, and Justice to Explore in Your Classroom. Teachers College Press. pp. 11–12. ISBN 978-0-8077-6343-8.