Women and Their Status in Urartu: a Critical Review

Abstract

The deficiency of Urartian written sources on social issues has made Urartian women more mysterious. However, the mystery of women's lives in Urartu. a powerful kingdom in the Ancient Near East, can to some degree be solved using the limited data available. In both Urartian and Assyrian written documents, we see data related to women forced to migrate by Urartian kings, and to captive Urartian women in Assyria and their fates. In Urartian written sources, some interesting data are found, such as the names of two Urartian women (queens), the story of a woman taken from one man and given to another as wife, and details of the abduction of a girl. Additionally, written sources, archaeological remains and depictions in art provide information about the positions of Urartian women in social and religious life, together with their professions, clothes and burial types. It can be seen that there were some differences between noble and non-elite women. It can also be understood that women had certain functions within Urartian religion, working life and marriages.