Ubartum

Ubartum (fl. c. 2075 BC) was a female physician who lived in Garšana, a town in Mesopotamia. Ubartum came from an influential family. Both of her brothers - Šu-kabta and Nawir-ilum - were physicians, too, and one of them was married to a daughter of king Shulgi.^[1] Ubartum is known from about fifty cuneiform texts;^[2] eleven of them call her physician. The texts naming her are all of an economical nature. They mostly just provide the information that Ubartum received goods. They cover sixteen years.^[3]

References

^ Budin, Stephanie Lynn; Cifarelli, Megan; Garcia-Ventura, Agnès; Albà, Adelina Millet (2018-10-04). Gender and methodology in the ancient Near East: Approaches from Assyriology and beyond. Edicions Universitat Barcelona. ISBN 978-84-9168-073-4.
^ Al-Rashid, Moudhy (2025-08-12). Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-1-324-03643-2.
^ Alexandra Kleinerman: Doctor Šu-Kabta’s Family Practice, in: A. Kleinerman and J. M Sasson (Hrsg.): Why should someone who knows something conceal it? Cuneiform studies in honor of David I. Owen. Bethesda, ISBN 978-1-934309-30-8, 177-181

[1] Budin, Stephanie Lynn; Cifarelli, Megan; Garcia-Ventura, Agnès; Albà, Adelina Millet (2018-10-04). Gender and methodology in the ancient Near East: Approaches from Assyriology and beyond. Edicions Universitat Barcelona. ISBN 978-84-9168-073-4.

[2] Al-Rashid, Moudhy (2025-08-12). Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-1-324-03643-2.

[3] Alexandra Kleinerman: Doctor Šu-Kabta’s Family Practice, in: A. Kleinerman and J. M Sasson (Hrsg.): Why should someone who knows something conceal it? Cuneiform studies in honor of David I. Owen. Bethesda, ISBN 978-1-934309-30-8, 177-181

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