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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Kudurrus of ancient Babylon

A kudurrus is an ancient Babylonian stone with an inscription that records a land grant, usually between the ruling monarch and a subject.  It's name is derived from kudurru, the Akkadian word for boundary.  The only kudurrus excavated in ancient Babylonian sites were found in temples where they would have served to record the transaction and to protect the rights of owner by legal as well as divine means.

Inscriptions usually provided the location of the plot of land, the boundaries of its four sides, the name of the surveyor of the property and the names of witnesses to the transaction. To provide divine protection of the relationship, a kudurrus also often included many symbols of deities such as the crescent, symbol of the moon-god Sin, the solar disk of the sun god Shamash, and the eight-pointed star of the goddess Ishtar/Inanna.

A Kassite example I photographed at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago was cast from an original in the British Museum.  The Kassites rose to power after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire and ruled from 1595 BCE until about 1155 BCE. The Kassites were members of a small military aristocracy but were efficient rulers and locally popular. Their 500-year reign laid an essential groundwork for the development of subsequent Babylonian culture. The chariot and the horse, which the Kassites worshipped, first came into use in Babylonia at this time. Kassite rulers in Babylon, though, were scrupulous to follow existing forms of expression, and the public and private patterns of behavior which was probably an important factor in their popularity.

Although the Kassite kings ruled conservatively, they were conquered in the 12th century BCE by the neighboring Elamites. They regained control briefly during Babylonian Dynasty V (1025-1004 BCE) but were then deposed by the Arameans. The Kassite people, however, survived as a dstinct ethic group in the mountains of Luristan long afterwards. Babylonian records describe how the Assyrian king Sennacherib on his eastern campaign of 702 BCE subdued the Kassites in a battle near Hulwan, Iran. During the later Achaemenid period, the Kassites, referred to as "Kossaei", lived in the mountains to the east of Media and were one of several "predatory" mountain tribes that regularly extracted "gifts" from the Achaemenid Persians, according to a citation of Nearchus by Strabo (13.3.6). However, they fought with the Persians against Alexander the Great in the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BCE. According to Diodorus Siculus (17.59) and Curtius Rufus (4.12), Alexander later launched a winter attack against the Kassites and put an end to their tribute-seeking raids.

Kudurrus recording a grant of land by Marduk-nadin-ahhe, King of Babylon to Adad-zer-iqisha 12th century BCE (cast) at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago (original in the British Museum)

There are more images of interesting kuddurru on Wikimedia Commons:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kudurru

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Reassertion of political power reflected in Late Period Egyptian art

 A scene of two girls in a wheat field quarreling and pulling each other's hair, found in Luxor in a Late Period tomb of a man named Mentuemhet closely resembles a scene used in the tomb of man named Menna who lived 1200 years before.  It dates from Dynasty 26 circa 664 BCE.  The Late Period is considered by scholars to be the last flowering of native Egyptian culture before the Persian conquests, followed by the victories of Alexander the Great and the establishment of the Ptolemaic Kingdom.

Its first pharaoh, Psamtik I, threw off ties to the Assyrians about 665 BCE by forming alliances with King Gyges of Lydia and mercenaries from Caria and Greece.  In the ninth year of his 54-year reign, Psamtik reunified Egypt by destroying the last vestiges of the Nubian 25th Dynasty's control over Upper Egypt. But Psamtik, in his effort to reassert Egyptian authority in the Near East, was driven back by the Neo-Babylonian forces under Nebuchadnezzar II.  However, he succeeded in restoring Egypt's prosperity and established close relations with Greece, encouraging many Greek settlers to establish colonies in Egypt and serve in the Egyptian army.

This reassertion of native Egyptian culture after a period of foreign control was proclaimed by the emulation of earlier Egyptian art to harken back to the historical period when Egypt was a dominant power in the region.  In 2017, a colossal quartzite statue of Psamtik I was discovered at Heliopolis. It, too, was sculpted in the ancient classical style of 2000 BCE, symbolizing a resurgence to the greatness and prosperity of the classical period.  At some point, however, the colossus was deliberately destroyed.  Fragments of the sculpture are cracked and discolored, evidence of having been heated to high temperatures then shattered with cold water, a historical method used to destroy ancient colossi.

Tomb engraving of two girls quarreling in a wheat field dating to the Egyptian 26th Dynasty, also known as the Saite period, that I photographed at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois in 2009.

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Iraqi archaeologists unearth new Babylonian town

"A new Babylonian town has been discovered by Iraqi archaeologists 180km south of capital city Baghdad.

Mohammed Yahya, head archaeologist from the provincial Antiquities Department in the Province of Diwaniya, revealed that the town, which is more than 20,000 square meters in area, is dotted with administrative quarters, temples and other buildings of magnificent and splendid design.

We have dug up a sectional sounding covering more than 20 square meters and have come across fascinating finds, Iraqi paper Azzaman quoted him, as saying.

While the current name of the town is known, Yahya admitted that its ancient name is still a mystery.

One of the most striking finds in the town has been that of a 30-kilogram Babylonian Duck Weight, which is 20 kilograms more than the ones that have been discovered so far.

Mr Yahyas team also found several cuneiform tablets but he acknowledged that it would be some time for them to be deciphered as Iraqi experts with the knowledge to decipher Mesopotamian script have fled the country.

The researchers also found cylinder seals, which could easily be compared with counterparts discovered in Babylon, 90 kilometers away and what seems like an intricate and highly developed sewage system.

The shape of the finds however, indicated to the researchers that the town existed during the Late Babylonian Period, about 1000 BC.

The scientists have also unearthed four graves. However, they have been left somewhat baffled by the positioning of the bodies.

Two bodies had been cut in half, with one part buried in the wall of a house and the other half in an urn.

The other two had iron nails in their hands, feet and necks indicating that they might have been executed, Mr Yahya added." If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!