Women and References to Women in Mesopotamian Royal Inscriptions: An Overview from the Early Dynastic to the end of Ur III period

The aim of this article is to present textual fragments from Mesopotamian royal inscriptions (and some texts dealing with them) created in the third millennium bc between the Early Dynastic and Ur III periods, that were written by women or include references to women. When possible, this article als...

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Main Author: Stefan Nowicki
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Finnish Oriental Society 2016-04-01
Series:Studia Orientalia Electronica
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journal.fi/store/article/view/47198
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author Stefan Nowicki
author_facet Stefan Nowicki
author_sort Stefan Nowicki
collection DOAJ
description The aim of this article is to present textual fragments from Mesopotamian royal inscriptions (and some texts dealing with them) created in the third millennium bc between the Early Dynastic and Ur III periods, that were written by women or include references to women. When possible, this article also contains short descriptions and discussion of the specific women and the context of their appearance in a given text. The main reason for limiting this short study to royal inscriptions is the huge number of preserved texts of different kinds (economic, legal, religious, etc.) in which women are mentioned. As this article focuses only on mortal women; any references to goddesses as well as other female supernatural beings will be omitted.The main finding of this research is that there are significant differences in the number of references to women, and in roles that they play in specific texts – as well as a changing number of personal inscriptions from women – dependent on the period of a text’s origins.
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spelling doaj.art-87f100dcab96472a924848a647b5ba2d2022-12-21T19:48:34ZengFinnish Oriental SocietyStudia Orientalia Electronica2323-52092016-04-0143652Women and References to Women in Mesopotamian Royal Inscriptions: An Overview from the Early Dynastic to the end of Ur III periodStefan Nowicki0University of WrocławThe aim of this article is to present textual fragments from Mesopotamian royal inscriptions (and some texts dealing with them) created in the third millennium bc between the Early Dynastic and Ur III periods, that were written by women or include references to women. When possible, this article also contains short descriptions and discussion of the specific women and the context of their appearance in a given text. The main reason for limiting this short study to royal inscriptions is the huge number of preserved texts of different kinds (economic, legal, religious, etc.) in which women are mentioned. As this article focuses only on mortal women; any references to goddesses as well as other female supernatural beings will be omitted.The main finding of this research is that there are significant differences in the number of references to women, and in roles that they play in specific texts – as well as a changing number of personal inscriptions from women – dependent on the period of a text’s origins.https://journal.fi/store/article/view/47198womensocietyroyal inscriptionsancient mesopotamia
spellingShingle Stefan Nowicki
Women and References to Women in Mesopotamian Royal Inscriptions: An Overview from the Early Dynastic to the end of Ur III period
Studia Orientalia Electronica
women
society
royal inscriptions
ancient mesopotamia
title Women and References to Women in Mesopotamian Royal Inscriptions: An Overview from the Early Dynastic to the end of Ur III period
title_full Women and References to Women in Mesopotamian Royal Inscriptions: An Overview from the Early Dynastic to the end of Ur III period
title_fullStr Women and References to Women in Mesopotamian Royal Inscriptions: An Overview from the Early Dynastic to the end of Ur III period
title_full_unstemmed Women and References to Women in Mesopotamian Royal Inscriptions: An Overview from the Early Dynastic to the end of Ur III period
title_short Women and References to Women in Mesopotamian Royal Inscriptions: An Overview from the Early Dynastic to the end of Ur III period
title_sort women and references to women in mesopotamian royal inscriptions an overview from the early dynastic to the end of ur iii period
topic women
society
royal inscriptions
ancient mesopotamia
url https://journal.fi/store/article/view/47198
work_keys_str_mv AT stefannowicki womenandreferencestowomeninmesopotamianroyalinscriptionsanoverviewfromtheearlydynastictotheendofuriiiperiod