Katalog der Berufstermini der Frauen in Ägypten im Spiegel dokumentarischer Papyri und Ostraka

Alter Orient und Altes Testament, Band 480.1

By (author) Juliane Meyenburg

Book cover: Katalog der Berufstermini der Frauen in Ägypten im Spiegel dokumentarischer Papyri und Ostraka

Publisher: Ugarit-Verlag

Subjects: Ancient Egypt, Ancient Near East, Gender & Sexuality

Series: Alter Orient und Altes Testament

Series volume number: 480.1

Language: German

Hardback (Published)

(December 2025)

ISBN: 9783868353563

6.69 x 9.45 inches

Price: $212.00

On back order

A comprehensive lexicon of women’s occupations in ancient Egypt based on documentary papyri and ostraka. Meyenburg reconstructs the scope, terminology, and social context of female labor, offering new insights into women’s economic roles and legal status in antiquity.


This study compiles and analyzes occupational terminology for women in ancient Egypt as preserved in documentary papyri, ostraka, and private letters. Moving beyond simple cataloging, it examines each term in context to reconstruct the nature and diversity of female labor.

The work challenges longstanding assumptions that women’s economic activity was marginal, demonstrating instead a wide range of professions across varied social and educational backgrounds. It also explores broader questions of how “profession” was defined in antiquity, the social valuation of labor, and the legal and economic position of women in Egyptian society.

Functioning both as a reference tool and a synthetic study, the volume provides a lexicon-like catalog alongside interpretive analysis, offering a substantial contribution to the study of gender, labor, and economy in the ancient Near East.

  • By (author) Juliane Meyenburg