Women in ancient Assyria

 During the Middle Assyrian Period, the social position of women in Assyria became lower than that of neighboring societies. Men were permitted to divorce their wives with no compensation paid to the latter. If a woman committed adultery, she could be beaten, have her ears or nose cut off, her nipples torn off, her eyes gouged out, or put to death. It's not certain if these laws were seriously enforced, but they appear to be a backlash against some older documents that granted things like equal compensation to both partners in divorce.

A law code dating from the reign of King Tiglathpileser I (1115 - 1076 BCE), a particularly misogynistic ruler,  in which punishments were especially severe, especially for women, reveals a woman could be punished not only for their individual transgressions, but also for crimes committed by their relatives under the principle of ius talionis (an eye for an eye).

‘If a man forcibly seizes and rapes a maiden who is residing in her father’s house... the father of the maiden shall take the wife of the rapist of the maiden and give her over to be raped. He shall not return her to her husband, he shall take her (for himself).'

'If a woman has procured a miscarriage by her own act, when they have prosecuted her and convicted her, they shall impale her on stakes without burying her. If she died in having the miscarriage, they shall impale her on stakes without burying her.’ 

`If a woman has crushed a gentleman’s testicle in a brawl, they shall cut off one finger of hers. If the other testicle has become affected along with it by catching the infection, even though a physician has bound it up, or she has crushed the other testicle in a brawl, they shall tear out both her eyes.’ 

The women of the king's harem and their servants were also subject to harsh punishments, such as beatings, mutilation, and death. Scholars have pointed out that this suppression of women's rights appears to have corresponded to the rise of monotheism in Assyrian theology. As the Assyrians conquered more and more peoples and elevated their god, Ashur, from a local god to supreme god over all and far removed from the natural world, women, with their critical role in the natural world as life bearer, became diminished. A man who saw a woman behaving in any way deemed unacceptable had to report that woman to the authorities instantly or risk 50 lashes, mutilation, and enslavement for a month.

However, during the Neo-Assyrian Period (883-608 BCE) royal women, at least, became independently wealthy and could buy land based on letters that have been recovered.  There are records of female officials who had important roles running the households of royal ladies and possibly others as well. Women outside the royal household also worked as priestesses and prophetesses.  But, no evidence of temple prostitution has been discovered and is thought to have been merely invented by later Greek authors to illustrate the moral decline of Babylon.

The Assyrian word harimtu, which was once translated as prostitute is now thought to refer to just a single woman without a husband or father and not tied to an institution. Although the term was used derogatorily in several texts as an insult, it was not defined as such universally.

The status of women in Assyria probably differed little from women throughout the patriarchal societies of the ancient Near East.  The brutality used to enforce the social order was the exception.

Assyria, in general, had much harsher laws than most of the region. Executions were not uncommon, nor were whippings followed by forced labor. Some offenses allowed the accused a trial under torture or duress. One tablet that covers property rights has brutal penalties for violators. A creditor could force debtors to work for him, but not sell them. Sex crimes were punished identically whether they were homosexual or heterosexual. An individual faced no punishment for penetrating a cult prostitute, someone of an equal or lower social class, such as slaves, or someone whose gender roles were not considered solidly masculine. Such sexual relations were even seen as good fortune. However, homosexual relationships with royal attendants, between soldiers, or with those where a social better was submissive or penetrated were either treated as rape or seen as bad omens, and punishments applied.

Read more about women in ancient Assyria at:

https://lb.boell.org/en/2017/02/09/women-fundamentalism-and-terror-echoes-ancient-assyria

and more about Tiglath Pileser I at:

https://www.ancient.eu/Tiglath_Pileser_I/

Image: Head of a female figure ca. 8th–7th century B.C.E. Assyrian at the Metropolitan Museum of Art courtesy of the museum.

This female head, carved in the round, was found in the Burnt Palace at Nimrud and may have originally been part of a composite statuette made of various materials and overlaid with gold foil. A square mortise cut into the bottom of this piece suggests that a tenon would have secured it to a now lost body. Part of the head has been damaged, but several features that remain, including the large, originally inlaid eyes, prominent ears, hooked nose, small mouth, and receding chin, are characteristic of North Syrian ivories. The hair falls in long individual locks, crowned by a diadem of rosettes and inlaid discs (the original colored glass or semiprecious stone inlays are now lost) tied at the back of the head. - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

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Syro-Phoenician Ivories

Built by the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II, the palaces and storerooms of Nimrud housed thousands of pieces of carved ivory. Most of the ivories served as furniture inlays or small precious objects such as boxes. While some of them were carved in the same style as the large Assyrian reliefs lining the walls of the Northwest Palace, the majority of the ivories display images and styles related to the arts of North Syria and the Phoenician city-states. Phoenician style ivories are distinguished by their use of imagery related to Egyptian art, such as sphinxes and slender elongated figures wearing pharaonic crowns, and the use of elaborate carving techniques such as openwork and colored glass inlay. Some were also adorned with gold leaf. North Syrian style ivories tend to depict stockier figures in more dynamic compositions, carved as solid plaques with fewer added decorative elements. However, some pieces do not fit easily into any of these three styles. Most of the ivories were probably collected by the Assyrian kings as tribute from vassal states, and as booty from conquered enemies, while some may have been manufactured in workshops at Nimrud. The ivory tusks that provided the raw material for these objects were almost certainly from African elephants, imported from lands south of Egypt, although elephants did inhabit several river valleys in Syria until they were hunted to extinction by the end of the eighth century BCE. - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

This statuette group, carved in the round, was found with five other statuettes with similar imagery. The six statuettes were excavated in and just below two arched niches built into the wall of a room at Fort Shalmaneser, a royal building at Nimrud that was probably used to store booty and tribute collected by the Assyrians while on military campaign. Those found just below the niches could have fallen when the palaces were destroyed during the the final defeat of Assyria at the end of the seventh century B.C. Originally, these objects were attached to long ivory plinths and exhibited in the arched niches, perhaps arranged in a procession of foreigners bringing different animals and animal skins as tribute to the Assyrian king. A frontally facing male, striding to the right with his lower body in profile, grasps the horns of an oryx (a species of desert-dwelling antelope) that strides behind him. The male figure’s eyes, necklace, and armlet were carved to receive colored glass or semiprecious stone inlays. He wears a short kilt belted with a long sash, embroidered with decoration including two uraei (mythical, fire-spitting serpents), zig-zags, wavy lines, small squares, rosettes, diamonds, and circles. A monkey, whose fur is rendered with short incisions, sits erect on his left shoulder and grasps his short curly hair. Although his right arm does not survive, it was probably extended to support the elaborately patterned leopard skin draped over his right shoulder. - Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Griffin at a Sacred Tree, Syro-Palestinian, 8th century BCE Ivory photographed at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland

Cow Suckling a Calf Ivory Syro-Palestinian 8th century BCE Ivory photographed at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.

Plaque-winged Sphinx Ivory Nimrud Iraq 8th century BCE photographed at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Ivory Panel Syro-Phoenician Nimrud 8th to 7th centuries BCE (2) photographed at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, California

Ivory Panel Syro-Phoenician Nimrud 8th to 7th centuries BCE photographed at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, California

Ivory Panel Syro-Phoenician Nimrud 8th to 7th centuries BCE photographed at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, California

Ivory Panel Syro-Phoenician Nimrud 8th to 7th centuries BCE photographed at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, California

Ivory Panel representing the Tree of Life Syro-Phoenician Nimrud 8th to 7th centuries BCE (7) photographed at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, California

Ivory Panel Syro-Phoenician Nimrud 8th to 7th centuries BCE photographed at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, California

Ivory Panel Syro-Phoenician Nimrud 8th to 7th centuries BCE photographed at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, California

Ivory Panel Syro-Phoenician Nimrud 8th to 7th centuries BCE photographed at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, California

Ivory plaque depicting female sphinx Megiddo Stratum VIIA Late Bronze IIB (1300-1200 BCE) photographed at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago

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