An Ox of One's Own : : Royal Wives and Religion at the Court of the Third Dynasty of Ur / / T. M. Sharlach.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Plus DeG Package 2017 Part 1
• VerfasserIn: Sharlach, T. M.,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2017]; ©2017
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records (SANER) , 18
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (XII, 336 p.)

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Part I: Historical Introduction: Shulgi, King of Ur and His Wives -- Chapter 1. Historical Introduction: The Reigns of Ur-Namma and Shulgi of Ur -- Chapter 2. Centers of Power, the Palaces and the Court -- Chapter 3. Queens and Concubines -- Chapter 4. Was There a Harem in Early Mesopotamia? -- Chapter 5. Lives of the Wives: Nin-kalla and Shulgi-simti -- Chapter 6. The Lives of Shulgi’s Wives: Ea-niša, Geme-Ninlilla and More -- Chapter 7. The Death of Shulgi and his Wives -- Part II: The Shulgi-simti Archive and the Shulgi-simti Foundation -- Chapter 8. The Shulgi-simti Archive -- Chapter 9. An Ox of One’s Own: Provisioners and Influence -- Chapter 10. Sacrifice: An Overview of the Cultic Events to which the Shulgi-simti Foundation Contributed -- Chapter 11. Belet-šuhnir and Belet-terraban and Religious Activities of the Queen and the Concubine(s) -- Part III: A Wider Lens -- Chapter 12. A Wider Context: Temple Households and Changes in the Roles Played by Royal Wives in Early Mesopotamia -- Chapter 13. Conclusions -- Bibliography, An Ox of One’s Own -- Tablets from the Yale Babylonian Collection -- Index