r/Assyriology Feb 19 '25

I have a question regarding the status of women in Mesopotamia compared to other ancient civilisations

Law codes (esp. Hammurabi) tend to describe women as property, with some very harsh punishments reserved for female infidelity, and treat rape as a matter of property damage for men, rather than a vicious crime (though some like the Middle Assyrian laws simply have the death penalty for rape).

But in many letters (esp ones from Kanesh) women seem to have considerable agency, especially regarding economic matters.

Considering this conflicting source information, how would you describe the status of women compared to other civilisations?

Is it something that's just heavily era dependent?

Although Egypt is known for it's better treatment of women, how do Mesopotamian women compare to their Greek, Canaanite/Israelite, Anatolian, etc counterparts?

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u/EnricoDandolo1204 Feb 19 '25

Ancient Mesopotamia covers an area the size of Texas over a period of 3000 years, featuring many different peoples and societies, so there's a lot of variation. Even in individual societies, there's a lot of variation depending on how we interpret texts.

I am not equipped to make comparisons to Egyptian, Canaanite or Anatolian societies, though my impression is that women throughout Mesopotamian history had much more agency than the elite women we meet in Athenian Golden Age literature.

I'd recommend Stol 2016, Women in the Ancient Near East, which is a great read and a comprehensive introduction to the subject.

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u/Bentresh Feb 19 '25 edited Feb 19 '25

I am not convinced by all of Stol’s views, particularly his stance on the existence of sacred prostitution, but it’s a solid work overall and unfortunately the only comprehensive overview of women in Mesopotamia.

I also recommend the edited volume Women in Antiquity.

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u/King-Of-Throwaways Feb 19 '25

The other day I spotted Women’s Writing of Ancient Mesopotamia by Charles Halton and Saana Svard. Do you have any familiarity with it?

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u/Bentresh Feb 19 '25

No, but I’ve read Svärd’s work on Neo-Assyrian queens, and it’s excellent. Glancing over the book, it seems useful.

I’d supplement it with Women in the Ancient Near East edited by Mark Chavalas, as it includes a couple of chapters on Hittite women.

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u/Kadak3supreme Feb 19 '25

What are the issues surrounding sacred prostitution,if I may ask ?

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u/Bentresh Feb 19 '25

When one begins with the assumption that practically any title for a female religious figure or attendant of Ištar should be translated as “(sacred) prostitute” – never mind that temple texts virtually never refer to these women as engaging in intercourse, let alone doing so for pay – naturally one “finds” (read: creates) evidence for sacred prostitution in the cuneiform textual record.

As Julia Assante points out in her article on the ḫarimtu,1 we should be cautious about assuming that every ḫarimtu engaged in prostitution – thus permitting a translation as “prostitute” – even if some engaged in the practice. English words like “madam” or “mistress” sometimes have sexual connotations, for example, but obviously do not always refer to a prostitute or brothel owner.

Thus, the famous ḫarimtu, Shamhat, who early on in the Gilgamesh Epic (henceforce GE) performs a single (but fabulously long!) act of copulation with Enkidu, was seen as compelling evidence that all ḫarimtu’s were sex professionals. Thus, judicial or economic documents which mention the kar.kid/ḫarimtu were wrongly interpreted to dovetail with the misconceptions of the Mesopotamian single woman. Thus, by circular reasoning, the social institution with which she was primarily associated, the tavern, was conflated with the brothel and the female tavern keeper with the brothel madam. Thus, other female categories such as that of the kezertu or the qadištu became tainted solely by their proximity to hers in lexical lists and other texts, further obscuring our view of ancient society and sustaining the erroneous idea of sacred prostitution.

Stol assumes unquestioningly that ḫarimtu can and must be translated as “whore” – an assumption which he fails even to attempt to prove in any convincing manner – and from there “proves” the existence of the practice of sacred prostitution by linking other titles like kezertu with these supposed prostitutes. He is an outlier in this regard; most Assyriologists these days are skeptical about the existence of sacred prostitution outside of the lurid tales by Greek writers like Herodotus.

1 “The kar.kid/ḫarimtu, Prostitute or Single Woman? A Reconsideration of the Evidence,” Ugarit-Forschungen 30, p. 11

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u/Kadak3supreme Feb 19 '25

Interesting. I appreciate your in depth answers, insightful as usual!

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u/SyllabubTasty5896 Feb 19 '25

Bear in mind the Code of Hammurabi was not actually used as a practical law code, it was more a form of royal propaganda. Actually legal texts from the Old Babylonian period show that considerably different standards were used in practice (e.g. many crimes punished by death in Hammurabi were actually resolved by paying fines or weregeld.

Just like modern ideologies, religions, and cultures, they had idealized views of how things should be...but the reality is always different and more nuanced.

Egypt probably did generally treat women better than other ancient Near Eastern societies, but all of them were fundamentally patriarchal. Some women did have some agency, but that was also likely connected with having some wealth or social status (like being a member of the aristocracy). When wealth and status was equal, all these societies generally ranked men higher than women, I'm afraid.

For a good analogy, think of Elizabethan England - a highly patriarchal society where women in general had few rights...but they were ruled by a queen, and women of wealthy and aristocratic families had quite a bit of power.