Women in the Ancient Near East / Marten Stol ; translated by Helen and Mervyn Richardson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stol, Marten, author.

Contributor:

Richardson, Helen, translator.

Richardson, M. E. J. (Mervyn Edwin John), 1943- translator.

Language:

Dutch

English

Subjects (All):

Women--Iraq--Babylonia.

Women.

Iraq--History--To 634.

Iraq.

History.

Civilization, Ancient.

Sex role--History.

Sex role.

Middle East--Babylonia.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

x, 696 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Boston ; Berlin : De Gruyter, 2016.

Summary:

Women in the Ancient Near East offers a lucid account of the daily life of women in Mesopotamia from the third millennium BCE until the beginning of the Hellenistic period. The book systematically presents the lives of women emerging from the available cuneiform material and discusses modern scholarly opinion. Stol's book is the first full-scale treatment of the history of women in the Ancient Near East.

Contents:

1 Her outward appearance 7

1.1 Phases of life 7

1.2 The girl 10

1.3 The virgin 13

1.4 Women's clothing 17

1.5 Cosmetics and beauty 47

1.6 The language of women 56

1.7 Women's names 58

2 Marriage 60

2.1 Preparations 62

2.2 Age for marrying 66

2.3 Regulations 67

2.4 The betrothal 72

2.5 The wedding 93

2.6 Marriage and magic 110

3 The marriage gifts 112

3.1 General remarks 112

3.2 The bride price 117

3.3 The dowry 134

3.4 Gifts from the man 145

4 The family 147

4.1 Impotence 148

4.2 Children 152

4.3 The mother 155

4.4 Bereavement 159

4.5 Childlessness 160

4.6 Repudiation of a childless wife 163

5 A second wife 165

5.1 A slave girl 168

5.2 Initiating the transaction 170

5.3 The second wife in the Old Assyrian period 182

5.4 The second wife in later periods 188

5.5 The position of the second wife when the first wife is ill 191

6 Concubines 193

7 Marriage between equals 200

8 Marriage to a slave 205

9 Divorce 209

9.1 In Babylonia 210

9.2 In Assyria 216

9.3 In the Neo-Babylonian period 220

9.4 In Syria 223

9.5 Motives for divorce 223

9.6 Predictions 230

9.7 Reconciliation 232

10 Adultery 234

10.1 Women who initiate adultery 235

10.2 Were both lovers treated equally? 239

10.3 Caught in the act 243

10.4 Punishment 244

10.5 Accusations of adultery 245

10.6 The Mother of Sin 250

10.7 An adulterous princess? 250

11 Rape 254

11.1 Slave-girl 255

11.2 Unmarried girl 258

11.3 Married woman 261

11.4 The locations 263

11.5 In myths 264

11.6 The right of the first night 265

12 Incest 268

12.1 Promiscuity 268

12.2 Incest 270

13 The widow 275

13.1 Poor widows 278

13.2 Arrangements made for widows in wills 282

13.3 Powerful widows 284

13.4 Remarrying 288

13.5 Cohabiting 290

13.6 Widows with children 292

14 Levi rate marriage 296

15 Women's rights of inheritance 300

16 Women trafficking under the guise of adoption 304

16.1 The Old Babylonian period 304

16.2 Nuzi 306

17 Women robbed of their freedom 311

17.1 Security for a man's debts 311

17.2 The woman as guarantor 319

27.1 Imprisoned for murder 323

17.1 The sale of children in time of need 324

17.2 Dedicated to a temple 326

17.3 Prisoners of war 331

18 Women and work 339

18.1 Working outside the home 341

18.2 Weavers 344

18.3 Grinding flour 350

18.4 Women as musicians and singers 353

18.5 The female innkeeper 363

18.6 Scribes 367

18.7 The female doctor 371

18.8 Wailing women 372

18.9 Women involved in childbirth 375

18.10 Business women 381

18.11 Women's seals 387

18.12 Women as witnesses 389

19 The witch 391

20 Prostitution 399

20.1 Where she worked 399

20.2 Dressed for work 405

20.3 Slave girls 409

20.4 The risk of pregnancy 410

20.5 Forced into prostitution 413

20.6 Marriage 414

20.7 Social esteem 416

21 Temple prostitution 419

21.1 Internal evidence 419

21.2 The kezertu 422

21.3 Devaluing old titles 426

21.4 Income 426

21.5 Goddess and whore 427

21.6 A wild celebration 435

22 Her physical life 436

22.1 Physiology 436

22.2 Menstruation 438

22.3 Diseases 441

22.4 The old woman 451

22.5 Dead and buried 456

23 The court and the harem before 1500 BC 459

23.1 The Sumerians 461

23.2 Ebla 464

23.3 Funerals 471

23.4 The Old Akkadian period 475

23.5 The kingdom of Ur 111 476

23.6 The Old Babylonian period 487

24 The court and the harem after 1500 BC 512

24.1 Babylonia 512

24.2 Assyria 514

24.3 Nuzi 518

24.4 The Hittites and Egypt 519

24.5 Ugarit 526

24.6 The Neo-Assyrian period 529

24.7 The Neo-Babylonian period 548

24.8 The Persian period and later 552

24.9 Arab queens 554

25 Priestesses 555

25.1 The high priestesses 555

25.2 Priestesses in Marl 578

25.3 Priestesses in the Old Assyrian period 580

25.4 Priestesses after the Old Babylonian period 581

26 Old Babylonian convents 584

26.1 Words for a 'nun' 586

26.2 The nadîtu 587

26.3 Inauguration 590

26.4 High status 594

26.5 Duties 597

26.6 Care in old age 600

26.7 The demise of the convent 601

27 Married holy women 605

27.1 The nadîtu of Marduk the god of Babylon 605

27.2 The holy woman, the qadištu 608

27.3 The kulmašitu 615

28 Soothsaying 617

28.1 Dreams, prophecy and ecstasy in Mari 620

28.2 Prophecy in Assyria 623

29 Women and worship 627

29.1 Offerings for the dead 628

29.2 Making intercession 631

29.3 The woman and her goddess 638

29.4 The mourning for Tammuz 640

30 The Sacred Marriage 645

30.1 Poetry 647

30.2 The reality of the situation 650

30.3 The function of the ritual 652

30.4 The Assyrian period and later 655

30.5 The demise of goddesses 657

31 The Middle Assyrian law-book about women 662

32 The value placed on women 683

32.1 Positive views 683

32.2 Negative views 685

32.3 Women compared with men 690.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Other Format:

Online version: Stol, Marten, author. Women in the Ancient Near East

ISBN:

9781614513230

1614513236

OCLC:

956637815

Publisher Number:

9781614513230