Olga Alexandrovna Rudaya master of Theology, lecturer, Theological Institute of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria (der. Kolbino, 25a, Leningrad region, Vsevolozhsk district, Russia, 188680)
chri@yandex.ru
Rudaya O. A. Widows’ status and care of them in Sumerian texts of Lower Mesopotamia (3rd mill. B.C.) , Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2024, vol. 13, pp. 190–223.
doi: 10.24412/2308-0698-2024-13-190-223
Language: Russian
The article examines widows’ status in Lower Mesopotamia as it was represented in the 3rd millennium B.C. texts. The Sumerian word «widow» can be found from ED IIIа (ca. 2600–2450 B.C.) onwards in administrative and economic documents, lexical lists and proverbs. There are some doubts about the usual meaning of the Sumerian word «widow» in administrative and economic texts of such an early period. Widows’ economic situation can be assessed on the basis of different kinds of texts, yet the Neo-Sumerian court cases and legal documents (Ur III, XXI B.C.) give us the liveliest picture. It is a matter of importance to mention a possibility for widows to marry again. The commonly known phrase today about protection of «an orphan and a widow» appears as early as in XXIV B.C. — in Urukagina’s text, then in Gudea’s and Ur-Nammu’s. Such declarations can be evidence of perception of widows as socially vulnerable persons.
Key words: assyriology, widow, Gudea, Mesopotamia, Early Dynastic Period, Ur III, Ur-Nammu, Urukagina, Sumer
URL: https://rcs-almanac.ru/rudaya-2024-en/
