Elements in the Ancient Near Eastern World and the Bible – serie

This Element presents what we know about the construction of sexuality and the sex lives of the residents of ancient Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and the Levant. After briefly introducing the regions and cultures under consideration and the sources of data, the work turns to female and male experiences of sexuality, matters of fertility and infertility, sexual orientation, and finally sex crimes. Primary sources are heavily foregrounded so that readers may understand what the sources of information are on these topics and may see how scholars have come to the understandings that they have.

This Element presents what we know about the construction of sexuality and the sex lives of the residents of ancient Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and the Levant. After briefly introducing the regions and cultures under consideration and the sources of data, the work turns to female and male experiences of sexuality, matters of fertility and infertility, sexual orientation, and finally sex crimes. Primary sources are heavily foregrounded so that readers may understand what the sources of information are on these topics and may see how scholars have come to the understandings that they have.

This Element offers readers an introduction to the Amarna letters. This group of 350 cuneiform tablets was discovered at the site of Tell el-Amarna (ancient Akhetaten) in Egypt. They date to the mid-fourteenth century BCE and preserve correspondence between Egyptian rulers of the late Eighteenth Dynasty and foreign political contemporaries from all over ancient Western Asia. These rulers (with few exceptions) never met face-to-face, yet they communicated about trade, military operations, gift-giving, and intermarriage between royal houses. The Canaanite Amarna letters from the southern Leant also elucidate the impact of Egypt's military and economic agenda from the perspective of subjugated elites. The Amarna letters are also important for our understanding of the people who made written diplomacy possible: cuneiform scribes. Overall, the letters paint a picture of highly localized and divergent scribal practices. The letters thereby fill in the gaps in material evidence for cuneiform scribal communities in the Amarna Age.