The Role of Women in Work and Society in the Ancient Near East by Walter de Gruyter

Author:Walter de Gruyter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Published: 2016-05-25T16:00:00+00:00

Brigitte Lion

Work and Gender in Nuzi Society

Acknowledgements: I wish to thank my colleague Françoise Rougemont, CNRS, for the help she provided me with the translation of this contribution into English. I also thank warmly Philippe Abrahami: since we have been studying Nuzi material together for a long time, most of the refences given here derive from our common studies and he generously indicated to me some of them which escaped my attention. Moreover, some of the ideas developped here originate from our common discussions. Part 3, dealing briefly with professions linked to the food sector, is derived from his Habilitation Dissertation (Abrahami 2012), forthcoming: I thank him for his kind permission to use his data here. Of course, all errors that remain are mine.

Brigitte Lion, Université Lille 3 – UMR HALMA 8164; [email protected]

At the beginning of the 14th century BC, the kingdom of Arraphe was a small vassal state of the Mittani. It is well documented by ca. 5,000 tablets unearthed in one of its provincial towns, Nuzi.

The professions existing in this kingdom are mentioned in a variety of documents, which belong to the archives of both institutions and families. The administrative texts, produced mainly by the palace and the great households, include lists of workers as well as lists of the rations issued to these workers. A few contracts show that private individuals also hire shepherds or oxherds, weavers or wet-nurses.

After a short bibliographical overview, this paper will analyze the documentation related to professions within two sectors of activity which are usually considered to be an extension of the household chores of women, namely textile production and food processing: in Nuzi, both men and women are attested performing these tasks.

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