Exploring Gender Dynamics across the Ancient Near East

This volume presents the findings of the Gender, Methodology and the Ancient Near East (GeMANE) 4 and 5 workshops, which were held online in 2021 and in person in Helsinki in 2022. GeMANE is a diverse and evolving community of scholars working on the broader ancient Near East, united by a common interest in exploring how aspects of sex and gender can be investigated through the ancient evidence. The approach is methodologically wide-ranging, encompassing scholars who examine the social construction of sex and gender in their various historical contexts, alongside those focused on the reception of ancient Near Eastern studies in both contemporary academic and popular discourse. The GeMANE community is interdisciplinary, composed of archaeologists, philologists, art historians, historians of science, gender scholars, and cultural historians. The research spans the ancient material of Western Asia, including Iran, and extends to Egypt and Phoenician-Punic sites across the Mediterranean. What makes our community vibrant is this diversity—both in academic backgrounds and geographical focus—which has fostered rich discussions across disciplines. A distinctive feature of GeMANE is its commitment to fostering an inclusive and collaborative environment. Over the years, the GeMANE community has explored a wide range of themes related to gender in the ancient Near East, including the intersection of gender with ethnicity, social status, and age. As the papers in this volume show, a key aspect of the work is the commitment to going beyond elite contexts, which have traditionally dominated the field due to the nature of the data available. Theoretical frameworks are  rigorously applied to develop new methodologies that allow investigating underexplored aspects of ancient life. In addition, the critical approach to labels and historiography has led to significant contributions that advance how we write about the lived experiences of historical actors. The cutting edge nature of the research presented at these workshops (and those presented in this volume) have resulted in long-term collaborations that span continents.

This volume presents the findings of the Gender, Methodology and the Ancient Near East (GeMANE) 4 and 5 workshops, which were held online in 2021 and in person in Helsinki in 2022. GeMANE is a diverse and evolving community of scholars working on the broader ancient Near East, united by a common interest in exploring how aspects of sex and gender can be investigated through the ancient evidence. The approach is methodologically wide-ranging, encompassing scholars who examine the social construction of sex and gender in their various historical contexts, alongside those focused on the reception of ancient Near Eastern studies in both contemporary academic and popular discourse. The GeMANE community is interdisciplinary, composed of archaeologists, philologists, art historians, historians of science, gender scholars, and cultural historians. The research spans the ancient material of Western Asia, including Iran, and extends to Egypt and Phoenician-Punic sites across the Mediterranean. What makes our community vibrant is this diversity—both in academic backgrounds and geographical focus—which has fostered rich discussions across disciplines. A distinctive feature of GeMANE is its commitment to fostering an inclusive and collaborative environment. Over the years, the GeMANE community has explored a wide range of themes related to gender in the ancient Near East, including the intersection of gender with ethnicity, social status, and age. As the papers in this volume show, a key aspect of the work is the commitment to going beyond elite contexts, which have traditionally dominated the field due to the nature of the data available. Theoretical frameworks are  rigorously applied to develop new methodologies that allow investigating underexplored aspects of ancient life. In addition, the critical approach to labels and historiography has led to significant contributions that advance how we write about the lived experiences of historical actors. The cutting edge nature of the research presented at these workshops (and those presented in this volume) have resulted in long-term collaborations that span continents.

Ellie Bennet and Omar N’Shea: Introduction

Bruno Biermann: “Where Are Your Daughters, Jerusalem?” The Embodiment of Gender and Family Relations in Iron Age Levantine Material Culture

Mina Dabbagh: Spatial Analysis of Gender: A Model of Spaces Assigned to Women in the Cultural Structure and Economies of Elam

Katrien De Graef: The Queen’s Gambit: Power, Kinship, and Heterarchy in Sukkalmah Elam (ca. 2025 – ca. 1585 BCE)

Kelsie Ehalt: Dogs, Gods, Kings, and Demons: Canine Relationships to Complicit Masculinities in Mesopotamian Culture

Fumi Karahashi and Agnès Garcia-Ventura: Coming Out of the Assyriological Closet? Some Insights on Sex, Gender, and Sexual Identities of the Gala in Presargonic Lagaš

Uroš Matić: Gendered Lives in Ancient Avaris: Some Cautionary Notes

Neville McFerrin: Beyond Binaries: Mediated Bodies, Productive Entanglements, and Categorical Slippages at Persepolis

Cécile Michel: Giving Ancient Near Eastern Women a Voice in the History for the General Public

Sonia Mzali: Enanatuma, Priestess and Builder: Commemorative Inscriptions as Agency

Emanuel Pfoh: Abigail’s Wisdom: Analysing Patronage and Gender in the Hebrew Bible

Ludovico Portuese: Un homme et une femme: Humanly Divine Love Affairs in the Garden Scene of Assurbanipal

Regine Pruzsinszky: “Singing the Rug” or Weaving Singers? The Case of Temple Singers in the Ur III Period

Allison Thomason: The Challenges of Labels for Studying Gender in the Ancient Near East: A Way Forward

Luciana Urbano: Blood: Reflections on the Construction of Political Ties in the Old Babylonian Sources of Mari (Modern Tell Hariri) and Šubat-Enlil/Šehna (Modern Tell Leilan) from the New Kinship Studies

Lorenzo Verderame: In the Interstices of Power: Ur III Women’s Cylinder Seals

Yoko Watai: Wives’ Involvement in the Household Economy: A Study of Urban Families in the “Long Sixth Century” in Babylonia

Gioele Zisa: Sex Is Violence: War and Hunting Metaphors in Akkadian Love and Sexual Literature

Ann K. Guinan: GeMANE Matters — Gender Studies in Troubled Times: The Leader of Rats cannot be a Lion

• By (author) Ellie Bennett
• By (author) Megan Cifarelli
• By (author) Omar N’Shea
• By (author) Allison Thomason