their father’s professions, while girls followed their mother’s. Most mothers had two
children (at the time of each listing), who presumably began work at a young age. The
average amount of monthly barley rations for a couple and their children just covered
subsistence; craftsmen were paid between 60 and 300 liters of barley, some specialists
300 or 510 , and supervisors up to 1 , 200. The most important employer was the state,
followed by temples.
Several categories of low status women occur in texts. Institutions like that of king
Shulgi’s wife, Shulgi-simti, employed numerous women; men worked more often for
the king. At the bottom of the social hierarchy were female slaves (listed as géme or sag-
munus) and probably the so-called Martu-women with unspecific tasks in sanctuaries
and other institutions, as well as so-called a-ru-a-people, including géme, géme-dumu,
widows and orphans unable to support themselves, who were votive offerings (ex voto)
to temples. People acquired as war booty were enslaved and forced to work in public
institutions. Private households had female slaves, the property of their owner, who
could be sold, hired, pledged, given as dowry, or inherited. If all or only some slaves
had legal status is not clear, but they could marry and have children with legitimate
status. Poverty was the main cause of enslavement. Widowed mothers were often
forced to sell a daughter; some women sold themselves into slavery. Another cause was
–– Women and agency ––Figure 18.7Seal of Ninkalla, midwife of Bau, Neo-Sumerian
(Formerly Erlenmeyer Collection, Basel. Author’s photo)