In essence, one could create a free workforce. Little evidence
points to polygynous relationships among middle- and lower-
class populations. However, little information exists about
the lower classes in general, so men from all classes may have
had the option of having more than one wife at a time. No
evidence shows that women could have more than one hus-
band at the same time.
Related to the topic of divorce is adultery. Many ancient
Egyptian sources suggest that men had access to women
other than their wives. Some tomb scenes show children who
are not biologically related to the wife; that they appear in
the tomb scenes demonstrates that they were not seen in a
negative light. Th e idea of illegitimacy did not seem to exist,
though it was taboo to have intercourse with another man’s
wife. Literary works suggest that the punishment for doing
so was death, primarily because then the paternity of a child
could be in doubt. In turn, it was not socially acceptable for
a wife to have intercourse with other men. Th e paternity of a
child was important, because a family’s assets would eventu-
ally be passed on to the children. Th is was also the case with
the inheritance of the mother, but the maternity of a child
was never an issue.
Once a man and woman resided together (or were mar-
ried), they began to have children as soon as possible. A
Tw e l ft h Dynasty gynecological papyrus indicates that the
ancient Egyptians knew how to conceive a baby but probably
not the biological details. Th is same document reveals how
the Egyptians found out if a woman was pregnant, how they
tried to prevent miscarriages, their methods of birth control,
and how they predicted the sex of an unborn child. Small an-
thropomorphic jars—that is, jars whose shapes have human
characteristics—have been found that are thought to have
contained the oil pregnant women rubbed on their skin to
prevent stretch marks or to relieve the itching of the belly as it
expanded through pregnancy.
Surviving literature provides many suggestions about
where birth took place—in a room of the house, on the roof,
in the courtyard, in the garden, or in a confi nement pavilion
made of plant material. Pottery shards from Deir el-Medina
and paintings from Amarna show illustrations of this pa-
vilion-like structure, which may have also been used for the
mother’s confi nement aft er birth. Th e mother was to remain
in seclusion for 14 days, according to one document.
At Deir el-Medina are other structures oft en called
birthing beds. Th ese beds oft en feature feminine iconogra-
phy, including depictions of the deities Bes and Taweret, who
were associated with pregnancy and childbirth. Historians
diff er in their interpretations of the beds’ intended purpose.
Some believe that mothers gave birth in them. Others have
noted that the placement of the structure in the fi rst room of
the house would not suit this function. Likewise, these were
permanent structures, but they would have been used only
once a year at most, suggesting a diff erent function. Another
possibility is that this was where the mother was secluded
aft er birth.
Childbirth was a precarious event. Th e infant mortality
rate was high, and thus many magical spells were employed to
help ensure the safe arrival of the newborn. Over 150 apotro-
paic wands—that is, wands having the power to ward off evil
or bad luck—have been found that bear protective phrases
regarding children. Th ere is also evidence for adoption in an-
cient Egypt. Th e legal details are unknown, but the adopted
child would have had access to the adoptive parents’ inheri-
tance and, in turn, would have been responsible for their
burial and funerary cults.THE MIDDLE EAST
BY KAREN RADNER
Tens of thousands of clay tablets recording legal contracts
and letters give historians considerable insight into the lives
of well-to-do urban families in ancient Mesopotamia, and
the information matches that to be gained from the far-less-
plentiful source material available for the other regions of the
Middle East, including Persia. Th e spacious town houses of
big cities such as Babylon, Sippar, and Assur did not house just
nuclear family units (father, mother, and children) but also ex-
tended families that encompassed at least three generations.
Family names, however, are found only from the late second
millennium onward and only in the Babylonian cities. Th ese
fa mi ly na mes were eit her professions such as “Ba ker,” “Smit h,”
or “Potter” or else the names of famous ancestors, such as the
prominent scholar Sinleqiunninni, the compiler of the Epic of
Gilgamesh, or the antediluvian sage Enmeduranki.
At the core of the household was the married couple, who
lived in the husband’s ancestral home. Normally the husband
was considerably older than his bride, as men oft en married
only aft er coming into their inheritance, that is, aft er their
father’s death. Women, in contrast, usually married as soon
as they reached sexual maturity. Marriages were oft en not ar-
ranged by bridegrooms themselves but by their fathers. Th e
new couple then lived at the groom’s parental home, under
his father’s authority. Th e bride offi cially had no say in her
marriage arrangement; the groom or his father reached an
agreement with her father or, if he was deceased, the male
relative under whose care she lived, usually a brother.
Marriage was expensive. Th e bride’s family had to provide
a dowry, which the groom’s family was obliged to match with
gift s. Th e occasion was celebrated with a lavish feast. As part
of the wedding ritual the bride formally left her own family’s
home and entered the groom’s house, severing links with her
birth family and becoming a member of her husband’s fam-
ily. Th is included worshipping her husband’s household gods
and providing memorial service to his ancestors. Th e sharp
divide between the husband’s family and the wife’s family
was refl ected also by the separate terms for maternal relatives,
clearly distinguishing them from the paternal ones.
Divorce was possible, with the wife (and her dowry) re-
turning to her birth family, but children stayed in the hus-
band’s care. Th e most common reason for divorce, though,450 family: The Middle East