Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 1: Pre-Modern Era (Pre-1850)
ca. 2300 BCE
First Known Author Is a Woman
The first author known by name was a woman: Enheduanna (fl. ca. 2300 BCE), daughter of Akkadian king Sargon and high priestess at the temple of the moon god in Ur, southern Mesopotamia. Her collection of Temple Hymns bears an inscription that translates, roughly, to: “The compiler of this tablet is Enheduanna. That which I’ve created has never existed before.” -Sasha Stiles
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.
Sources
People
Enheduanna, Sargon of Akkad, Sasha Stiles
Movements
Computer Text, Generative Poetry
Filed under
- Ideas
- authorship, Computer Text, Generative Poetry, poetry
- People
- Enheduanna, Sargon of Akkad, Sasha Stiles
- Works
- Temple Hymns
- Places
- Akkad, Mesopotamia, Ur
Echoes across time
- 2002 · Christian Bök Publishes The Piecemeal Bard is Deconstructed
- 2015 · Oscar Schwartz gives a TEDx Talk on Computational Poetics
- 1984 · The Policeman’s Beard is Half-Constructed Published
Le Random editorials
- Sasha Stiles and Martha Joseph on Language as Technology, Peter Bauman, September 10, 2025
- Sasha Stiles on Writing Poets, Peter Bauman, January 25, 2024
Le Random podcast
- Timeline Ch 1—Pre-Modern Era with Marius Watz — listen with transcript on Le Random (06 Jul 2023, 46 min). Chapter 1’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify