Intro -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- Map -- 1 Her outward appearance -- 1.1 Phases of life -- 1.2 The girl -- 1.3 The virgin -- 1.4 Women's clothing -- 1.5 Cosmetics and beauty -- 1.6 The language of women -- 1.7 Women's names -- 2 Marriage -- 2.1 Preparations -- 2.2 Age for marrying -- 2.3 Regulations -- 2.4 The betrothal -- 2.5 The wedding -- 2.6 Marriage and magic -- 3 The marriage gifts -- 3.1 General remarks -- 3.2 The bride-price -- 3.3 The dowry -- 3.4 Gifts from the man -- 4 The family -- 4.1 Impotence -- 4.2 Children -- 4.3 The mother -- 4.4 Bereavement -- 4.5 Childlessness -- 4.6 Repudiation of a childless wife -- 5 A second wife -- 5.1 A slave-girl -- 5.2 Initiating the transaction -- 5.3 The second wife in the Old Assyrian period -- 5.4 The second wife in later periods -- 5.5 The position of the second wife when the first wife is ill -- 6 Concubines -- 7 Marriage between equals -- 8 Marriage to a slave -- 9 Divorce -- 9.1 In Babylonia -- 9.2 In Assyria -- 9.3 In the Neo-Babylonian period -- 9.4 In Syria -- 9.5 Motives for divorce -- 9.6 Predictions -- 9.7 Reconciliation -- 10 Adultery -- 10.1 Women who initiate adultery -- 10.2 Were both lovers treated equally? -- 10.3 Caught in the act -- 10.4 Punishment -- 10.5 Accusations of adultery -- 10.6 The Mother of Sin -- 10.7 An adulterous princess? -- 11 Rape -- 11.1 Slave-girl -- 11.2 Unmarried girl -- 11.3 Married woman -- 11.4 The locations -- 11.5 In myths -- 11.6 The right of the first night -- 12 Incest -- 12.1 Promiscuity -- 12.2 Incest -- 13 The widow -- 13.1 Poor widows -- 13.2 Arrangements made for widows in wills -- 13.3 Powerful widows -- 13.4 Remarrying -- 13.5 Cohabiting -- 13.6 Widows with children -- 14 Levirate marriage -- 15 Women's rights of inheritance -- 16 Women-trafficking under the guise of adoption -- 16.1 The Old Babylonian period -- 16.2 Nuzi.

17 Women robbed of their freedom -- 17.1 Security for a man's debts -- 17.2 The woman as guarantor -- 17.3 Imprisoned for murder -- 17.4 The sale of children in time of need -- 17.5 Dedicated to a temple -- 17.6 Prisoners of war -- 18 Women and work -- 18.1 Working outside the home -- 18.2 Weavers -- 18.3 Grinding flour -- 18.4 Women as musicians and singers -- 18.5 The female innkeeper -- 18.6 Scribes -- 18.7 The female doctor -- 18.8 Wailing women -- 18.9 Women involved in childbirth -- 18.10 Business women -- 18.11 Women's seals -- 18.12 Women as witnesses -- 19 The witch -- 20 Prostitution -- 20.1 Where she worked -- 20.2 Dressed for work -- 20.3 Slave-girls -- 20.4 The risk of pregnancy -- 20.5 Forced into prostitution -- 20.6 Marriage -- 20.7 Social esteem -- 21 Temple prostitution -- 21.1 Internal evidence -- 21.2 The kezertu -- 21.3 Devaluing old titles -- 21.4 Income -- 21.5 Goddess and whore -- 21.6 A wild celebration -- 22 Her physical life -- 22.1 Physiology -- 22.2 Menstruation -- 22.3 Diseases -- 22.4 The old woman -- 22.5 Dead and buried -- 23 The court and the harem before 1500 BC -- 23.1 The Sumerians -- 23.2 Ebla -- 23.3 Funerals -- 23.4 The Old Akkadian period -- 23.5 The kingdom of Ur III -- 23.6 The Old Babylonian period -- 24 The court and the harem after 1500 BC -- 24.1 Babylonia -- 24.2 Assyria -- 24.3 Nuzi -- 24.4 The Hittites and Egypt -- 24.5 Ugarit -- 24.6 The Neo-Assyrian period -- 24.7 The Neo-Babylonian period -- 24.8 The Persian period and later -- 24.9 Arab queens -- 25 Priestesses -- 25.1 The high priestesses -- 25.2 Priestesses in Mari -- 25.3 Priestesses in the Old Assyrian period -- 25.4 Priestesses after the Old Babylonian period -- 26 Old Babylonian convents -- 26.1 Words for a 'nun' -- 26.2 The nad�itu -- 26.3 Inauguration -- 26.4 High status -- 26.5 Duties -- 26.6 Care in old age.

26.7 The demise of the convent -- 27 Married holy women -- 27.1 The nad�itu of Marduk the god of Babylon -- 27.2 The holy woman, the qadištu -- 27.3 The kulmašītu -- 28 Soothsaying -- 28.1 Dreams, prophecy and ecstasy in Mari -- 28.2 Prophecy in Assyria -- 29 Women and worship -- 29.1 Offerings for the dead -- 29.2 Making intercession -- 29.3 The woman and her goddess -- 29.4 The mourning for Tammuz -- 30 The Sacred Marriage -- 30.1 Poetry -- 30.2 The reality of the situation -- 30.3 The function of the ritual -- 30.4 The Assyrian period and later -- 30.5 The demise of goddesses -- 31 The Middle Assyrian law-book about women -- 32 The value placed on women -- 32.1 Positive views -- 32.2 Negative views -- 32.3 Women compared with men -- Bibliography -- Indexes.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2022. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.