An Ox of One's Own: Royal Wives and Religion at the Court of the Third Dynasty of Ur

by T. M. Sharlach

Overview

Shulgi-simti is an important example of a woman involved in sponsoring religious activities though having a family life. An Ox of One’s Own will be of interest to Assyriologists, particularly those interested in Early Mesopotamia, and scholars working on women in religion.

An Ox of One’s Own centers on the archive of a woman who died about 2050 B.C., one of King Shulgi’s many wives. Her birth name is unknown, but when she married, she became Shulgi-simti, “Suitable for Shulgi.” Attested for only about 15 years, she existed among a court filled with other wives, who probably outranked her. A religious foundation was run on her behalf whereby courtiers, male and female, donated livestock for sacrifices to an unusual mix of goddesses and gods.
Previous scholarship has declared this a rare example of a queen conducting women’s religion, perhaps unusual because they say she came from abroad. The conclusions of this book are quite different.
An Ox of One’s Own lays out the evidence that another woman was queen at this time in Nippur while Shulgi-simti lived in Ur and was a third-ranking concubine at best, with few economic resources. Shulgi-simti’s religious exercises concentrated on a quartet of north Babylonian goddesses.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501505225
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	09/11/2017
Series:	Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records (SANER) , #18
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	348
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

T. M. Sharlach, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, U.S.A.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgements xi

List of Illustrations xii

Part I Historical Introduction: Shulgi, King of Ur and His Wives

Chapter 1 Historical Introduction: The Reigns of Ur-Namma and Shulgi of Ur 3

Chapter 2 Centers of Power, the Palaces and the Court 31

Chapter 3 Queens and Concubines 53

Chapter 4 Was There a Harem in Early Mesopotamia? 71

Chapter 5 Lives of the Wives: Nin-kalla and Shulgi-simti 101

Chapter 6 The Lives of Shulgi's Wives: Ea-nlša, Geme-Ninlilla and More 139

Chapter 7 The Death of Shulgi and his Wives 175

Part II The Shulgi-simti Archive and the Shulgi-simti Foundation

Chapter 8 The Shulgi-simti Archive 189

Chapter 9 An Ox of One's Own: Provisioned and Influence 211

Chapter 10 Sacrifice: An Overview of the Cultic Events to which the Shulgisimti Foundation Contributed 239

Chapter 11 Belet-šuhnir and Belet-terraban and Religious Activities of the Queen and the Concubine(s) 261

Part III A Wider Lens

Chapter 12 A Wider Context: Temple Households and Changes in the Roles Played by Royal Wives in Early Mesopotamia 289

Chapter 13 Conclusions 305

Bibliography 309

Tablets from the Yale Babylonian Collection 323

Index 333