participants in many religious festivals, the positions they occupied
were probably well down the priestly hierarchy– even in cases
where a particular cult was dedicated to a female deity, like the
goddess Ishtar or the Sun Goddess of Arinna.
There are occasional references to women’s involvement in
various lower-level occupations, as bakers, cooks, weavers and
fullers. They were also hired as seasonal farm-labourers, alongside
male labourers, though their rate of pay, as specified in the Laws,
was only half that of men, or even less. Payment was often in kind.
Thus Clause 158 of the Laws tells us that in the harvest season:
If a free man hires himself out for wages, to bind sheaves,
load them on wagons, deposit them in barns, and clear the
threshingfloors, his wages for three months shall befifteen
hundred litres of barley. If a woman hires herself out for
wages in the harvest season, her wages for three months shall
be six hundred litres of barley.Of course as we have noted, the Laws served merely as guidelines,
not as prescriptive rulings. And the value of women in the workforce
no doubt increased substantially at times of severe shortages of
manpower due to plague, the redeployment of males on public
works projects, or the absence of males on military campaigns. Their
rates of pay may have varied considerably depending on the
circumstances which led to their employment.
But women did play a major role in the various healing
professions. We know that a number of women practised as
physicians, perhaps as many as one to four male physicians,^9 and
women were very prominent in other healing arts. Midwivesfigure
in a number of our texts–firstly to assist with the birth of a baby
and then in uttering incantations designed to ensure that the baby
would be healthy and enjoy a long life. We’ve discussed this at
greater length inChapter 13.
We have no idea of infant mortality rates in the Hittite world.
But in view of the importance that must have been attached to
population renewal, a great deal of attention was very likely focused
on keeping these rates as low as possible–through the attention
of specially trained midwives and other health professionals in
156 WARRIORS OF ANATOLIA