Cornelia Wunsch, School of Oriental and African Studies (London)
Caring for Women’s Needs: Legal and Economic Realities in Sixth-Century (BCE) Babylonia

Abstract:

This paper examines the evidence from Neo-Babylonian legal records dealing with women’s inheritance, maintenance, and claims to property. It looks at ways in which women were provided with income and support above and beyond their legal entitlement. Such provision could make use of cuneiform law's well-established framework for the transfer of property rights to real estate, prebends, and chattle under various circumstances and conditions. The paper also gives special attention to conditional and unconditional property transfers to married women for their own use (i.e., to be managed by them independently from their husbands) and to the position of foster children raised by women in wealthy households.