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Vivid sources for reconstructing the lives of Assyrian women In this collection Cécile Michel translates into English texts related to wives and daughters of merchants and to their activities in nineteenth-century BCE Aššur and Kaneš. Discovered in excavations of the Old Assyrian private archives at Kültepe (ancient Kaneš) in Central Anatolia, these letters sent from Aššur reflect the preeminent role of Assyrian women within the family and in the domestic economy, as well as their contribution to long-distance trade. Contracts and other legal texts excavated at Kültepe attest to Assyrian and Anatolian women as parties in marriage and divorce contracts, last wills, loans, and purchase contracts. These unique finds paint a vivid portrait of women who aspire to be socially respected and provide a rare opportunity to reconstruct their daily lives as both businesswomen and housewives. Features More than three hundred letters and documents transliterated and translated with commentary An overview of the study of women and gender in Assyriology A reconstruction of women's roles as textile producers, investors, and creditors within a long-distance commercial network Cécile Michel is Senior Researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS, France) and Professor at Hamburg University (Germany). She is a member of the international group of scholars in charge of the decipherment of the 23,000 tablets found at Kültepe (ancient Kaneš) and of the Kültepe archaeological team. She is the coeditor of and contributor to The Role of Women in Work and Society in the Ancient Near East (2016), Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD (2017), and Mathematics, Administrative and Economic Activities in Ancient Worlds (2020).

It is widely recognised that sexual and reproductive health services are underutilised by culturally and linguistically diverse migrant communities, leading to risk of poor health outcomes. This study examined the constructions and experiences of reproductive and sexual health, and associated services, in Assyrian and Karen women who had arrived in Australia as refugees. Forty two women, across a range of age groups and marital status, participated in five focus groups, with thematic analysis and positioning theory used to analyse the results. Two major themes were identified. The first, the ‘Premarital Chastity Imperative’ centres on the cultural prohibition of coital hetero-sex before marriage, and taboos associated with same-sex relationships. This has implications for unmarried women’s access to sexual health services, such as contraception, cervical screening, and abortion; prohibition of sex education and communication about sex; and lack of recognition of non-heterosexual identities. The second theme, ‘Marital Sex and Reproductive Imperative’, positioned coital sex and motherhood as mandatory within marriage, and was associated with women’s inability to refuse marital sex, limited knowledge about contraception and sexual pain, acceptance of fertility services, as well as lack of recognition of post-natal depression. It is concluded that health care workers need to be aware of cultural constructions of sex and sexuality, as well as the construction of gendered roles within heterosexual relationships, when designing and offering sexual health services to non English speaking or migrant communities.

Assyrian ideology pervades most textual material and tends to subsume the individual personalities of both men and women in the stock roles it creates for them. Melville identifies how the Assyrians ranked women within the domestic quarters including its social function. She claims that the status of royal women in the Neo-Assyrian period was a product of the king's need as the head of male society both to establish his masculinity by protecting and controlling his women and to protect his masculinity by distancing himself from these women and minimizing their power.

This chapter contains sections titled: Evidence from Elite Tombs Case Studies Summary and Conclusion Recommended Further Reading

Women played a key role in the Old Assyrian trade network. Here, Hafford presents how Assyrian women participated actively in trading activities.

Reviews cultural history, religious and ethnic makeup, role of Islam in government, language, societal structure, tribal regions and alliances, and other cultural aspects and attitudes of Iraqi people.

At the beginning of the second millennium B. C., the Assyrians organized from Assur (in modern Iraq), exchanges of products with Central Anatolia where some of them settled. There, they contracted at times a second marriage with a native girl. Merchant wives and daughters stayd alone in their houses at Assur during long periods, left to get married and to settle at Kanis (Central Anatolia), or followed their husband in their many travels within Anatolia. The numerous cuneiform archives (private letters and legal texts) unearthed in the harbour of Kanis illustrate the variety of travels women accomplished with or without their husbands. // ABSTRACT IN FRENCH: Les Assyriens, au début du iie millénaire av. J.-C., organisent, depuis Aur (site actuellement en Irak), des échanges commerciaux avec l'Asie Mineure où certains d'entre eux s'installent et contractent parfois un second mariage avec une autochtone. Femmes et filles de marchands restent seules pendant de longues périodes dans leur maison à Aur, partent fonder un foyer à Kani (en Anatolie centrale), ou suivent leurs maris dans toutes leurs pérégrinations en Asie Mineure. Les nombreuses archives cunéiformes - correspondance privée et documents juridiques - découvertes dans le quartier commerçant de Kani illustrent les différents voyages accomplis par les femmes avec ou sans leurs époux. Reproduced by permission of Bibliothèque de Sciences Po