The Role of Women in Work and Society in the Ancient Near East (Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records (Saner), 13)

Economic history is well documented in Assyriology, thanks to the preservation of dozens of thousands of clay tablets recording administrative operations, contracts and acts dealing with family law. Despite these voluminous sources, the topic of work and the contribution of women have rarely been addressed. This book examines occupations involving women over the course of three millennia of Near Eastern history. It presents the various aspects of women as economic agents inside and outside of the family structure. Inside the family, women were the main actors in the production of goods necessary for everyday life. In some instances, their activities exceeded the simple needs of the household and were integrated within the production of large organizations or commercial channels. The contributions presented in this volume are representative enough to address issues in various domains: social, economic, religious, etc., from varied points of view: archaeological, historical, sociological, anthropological, and with a gender perspective. This book will be a useful tool for historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and graduate students interested in the economy of the ancient Near East and in women and gender studies. Foreword 5 Acknowledgements 7 Contents 9 Women and Work in the Ancient Near East: An introduction 13 Weaving, Potting, Churning: Women at work during the Uruk period. Evidence from the cylinder seals 20 Representation of Women in Mesopotamian Lexical Lists 41 Women and Land in the Presargonic Lagaš Corpus 69 The Role of Women in Work and Society in the Ebla Kingdom (Syria, 24th century BC) 83 Women and Production in Sargonic Adab 102 Professional Women and Women at Work in Mesopotamia and Syria (3rd and early 2nd millennia BC): The (rare) information from visual images 124 Women at Work and Women in Economy and Society during the Neo-Sumerian Period 161 The Sex-Based Division of Work versus Intersectionality: Some strategies for engendering the Ur III textile work force 186 Women Work, Men are Professionals in the Old Assyrian Archives 205 The Job of Sex: The social and economic role of prostitutes in ancient Mesopotamia 221 “She is not fit for womanhood”: The Ideal Housewife According to Sumerian Literary Texts 240 Economic Activities of naditum-Women of Šamaš Reflected in the Field Sale Contracts (MHET II/1–6) 267 Cherchez la femme!. The Economic Role of Women in Old Babylonian Sippar 282 Economic Activities of Women According to Mari Texts (18th century BC) 308 Women at Work in Mesopotamia: An attempt at a legal perspective 322 Sources for the Study of the Role of Women in the Hittite Administration 340 Work and Gender in Nuzi Society 366 Women in Economic Agreements: Emarite sale contracts (Syria, 13th century BC) 383 The kubudda’u-Gift in the Emar Texts 400 Women in Elamite Royal Inscriptions: Some observations 428 Women and their Activities in Divinatory Texts 441 Studying Gender: A Case study of female administrators in Neo-Assyrian palaces 459 Historiography on Studies Dedicated to Women and Economy during the Neo-Babylonian Period 471 Invisible Workers: The role of women in textile production during the 1st millennium BC 485 Economic Activities of Women in 1st Millennium Babylonia 506 Beauty Experts: Female perfume-makers in the 1st millennium BC 524 Women and Prebends in Seleucid Uruk 538 Women and the Economic History of the Ancient Greek World: Still a challenge for gender studies 555 Index of professions and activities 577 Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records (SANER) is a peer-reviewed series devoted to the publication of monographs pertaining to all aspects of the history, culture, literature, religion, art, and archaeology of the Ancient Near East, from the earliest historical periods to Late Antiquity. The aim of this series is to present in-depth studies of the written and material records left by the civilizations and cultures that populated the various areas of the Ancient Near East: Anatolia, Arabia, Egypt, Iran, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Syria. Thus, SANER is open to all sorts of works that have something new to contribute and which are relevant to scholars and students within the continuum of regions, disciplines, and periods that constitute the field of Ancient Near Eastern studies, as well as to those in neighboring disciplines, including Biblical Studies, Classics, and Ancient History in general. Economic history is well documented in Assyriology thanks to the good preservation of numerous private and official archives; however, the contribution of women has seldom been addressed. This volume examines the many aspects of women as economic agents, inside and outside of the family structure over the three millennia of Near Eastern history. Papers address issues from historical and archaeological points of view and with a gender perspective