The Sumerian Woman 5,000 Years Ago

Much of our true history still lies buried under thick layers of dust, legend, and intellectual distortion, despite the many attempts being made in various parts of the country to revive it, bring it back to life, organize it, and make of it a sound science built on clear foundations. The modern discoveries in many parts of our homeland have played a far-reaching part in shaking off those thick layers of dust, just as they have played a part in revealing the origins of many of our social customs and habits.

Among the most important features of the Sumerian community were its conceptions of morals and conduct, which led it to lay down laws and rules for these conceptions — the first of their kind in the world. Hammurabi and his laws are nothing but the culmination of the spiritual progress this community had attained by his relatively late age.

Sumerian society was divided into three principal classes. The first class comprised the heads of religion, government officials, and the men of the army; the second class comprised the merchants, the farmers, and the schoolteachers; while the third class comprised the slaves and bondsmen. Each class had its own laws and its fixed social position.

As for the woman in this society, she had an ample share of freedom, and she could attain important positions. In the city of "Kish" we see that a woman of humble origin named "Kubu" managed, in a manner unknown to us, to found a royal dynasty and to rule the whole of southern Iraq at a time when every city formed a government unto itself and chaos prevailed throughout the land. Yet this freedom was relative and small if we consider the woman's position on the whole, and the fact that she was a chattel belonging to the man as the legal head of the family; he had the right to dispose of his wife — placing her, for example, at the disposal of his creditor for a period sometimes reaching three years.

It appears from the customs of the Sumerians that the mixing of the sexes was an accepted practice, for the bride, before her wedding, was permitted to frequent or even to live in her husband's house. This shows us that the girl was not shut away or barred from the company of her betrothed, as is still the case among us to this day in some places, where the fiancée may not visit her fiancé's house before they marry.

As for marriage, it was a contract between the suitor and the father, under which the former presented a dowry that became the property of the bride, hers to dispose of throughout her life; she bestowed it on her children when she died, and if she had no children, then on her family. There were also recorded in the contract

her conditions: that she could not be placed at the disposal of her husband's creditors from before her marriage, and that their common property could not be disposed of without her consent.

The custom was for a man to marry one wife, unless she was barren, in which case he had the right to marry another. The first wife retained her position as mistress of the house, and she was entitled to receive compensation and to recover her dowry, while the new woman was to be obedient to her and obliged to "wash her feet and carry her chair to the temple of the lord." In many cases the first wife would present her husband with a concubine or a slave girl to bear him children; once she had done so she became free, though never at all the equal of the first, who retained the right to sell her or to make her leave the house. The story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar makes plain to us the persistence and spread of this custom, and tells us that this phenomenon passed to and spread among the other peoples dwelling in the Fertile Crescent, just as other religious ideas, social customs, sciences, and other things were passed on.

When a man received a slave girl from his wife, he had no right to bring another into the house; if he did, the first wife had the right to return to her father's house, taking her dowry with her.

As for the woman's importance and her essential mission, it was motherhood and the preservation of the man's line; and if she refused conjugal relations while in good health, she was thrown into the water and drowned. The freedom she enjoyed was a consequence of this essential mission. Yet her mission and her possibilities were not confined to household duties and the bearing of children; the field was also open before her in the religious temples.

At the beginning of the Sumerian age the Sumerian woman wore a garment made of two pieces: the first, a long undershirt; the second, a long-sleeved cloak hanging down to the ground and fastened at the shoulders with a copper pin.

The woman — as is her way in every place and time — took care in dressing her hair, curling it in front so that it crowned the forehead, and letting some of its tresses hang down before the shoulders. On her head she wore a band consisting of a ring of twisted cloth or, at times, of metal.

It was the woman's custom to adorn her neck with necklaces and collars, from which hung various kinds of amulets and charms. She wore bracelets on her wrists, fashioned of gold, silver, carnelian, emerald, glass, and other precious stones. She used pins to fasten her clothing, ornamented with heads of precious metals or precious stones; and gold and silver anklets were likewise known, on arms and feet.