society, institutions, law, and economy 43
in the aramaic papyri from elephantine and elsewhere in the ancient
near east.
information about upper-class women can be obtained from iconogra-
phy. many funerary monuments from northern Syria and anatolia depict
women sitting at the table, having a meal with their husbands.40 the
motif of the dead sitting at a table laid out for a meal, which occurs on
funerary monuments in the 1st millennium B.c., goes back to an anato-
lian tradition. the women depicted hold a distaff and a spindle as a status
symbol. numerous spindles from different archaeological contexts and
strata in Syria hint at the importance this tool held from the chalcolithic
period onward.41 most of them played a part in the manufacture of tex-
tiles and not in the commemoration of the dead. however, the connection
of spindles with the commemoration of the dead already existed in asia
minor in the Bronze age. the tradition established itself in Syria during
the iron age, where a rapid increase in the depictions of spindle whorls in
iron age graves is observed.42 these status symbols of upper-class women
were probably not real tools but rather an attribute of their femininity.
apart from this, hittite tradition views the thread of wool as the symbol
of life, where goddesses of fate spin the thread of life for a king and other
mortals.43 therefore, the motif of the distaff and spindle in Syrian graves
or on funerary monuments might also hint at the hope for a continuance
of life in the hereafter.44
1.5 Urban Societyafter the capture of cities and villages by aramaean tribes, a kind of
limited urban society developed that was restricted to the city. the city
was the residence of the king and his immediate and extended family,
who constituted an aristocratic élite. in a unique way, tribal and urban
structures joined, resulting in a hierarchic, yet tribally structured society.45
For Samʾal, a number of 7,500–9,000 inhabitants is estimated, for arpad
10,000–12,000, and for Guzana/tell halaf 10,000–13,000.46
40 dion 1997: 293f and Bonatz 2000a: 79–85.
41 cf. section 3 of d. Bonatz’s contribution in this volume.
42 Bonatz 2000a: 80f.
43 Bonatz 2000a: 81f.
44 Bonatz 2000a: 82.
45 See above for a general explanation of the settling of the semi-nomadic tribes.
46 a density of 200–250 inhabitants is estimated per hectare of fortified city. For calcu-
lations of the density of inhabitants, see Lipiński 2000a: 526f with n. 68.