Editing Assyria (section)

=== Population and social standing ===
{{See also|Assyrian culture}}

==== Populace ====
[[File:Denis Bourez - British Museum, London (8748213226).jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|A neo-Assyrian relief of Assyrians in a procession]]
The majority of the population of ancient Assyria were farmers who worked land owned by their families.{{Sfn|Bedford|2009|p=36}} Old Assyrian society was divided into two main groups: slaves (''subrum'') and free citizens, referred to as ''awīlum'' ("men") or <small>DUMU</small> ''Aššur'' ("sons of Ashur"). Among the free citizens there was also a division into ''rabi'' ("big") and ''ṣaher'' ("small") members of the city assembly.{{sfn|Michel|2017|pp=81, 83}} Assyrian society grew more complex and hierarchical over time. In the Middle Assyrian Empire, there were several groups among the lower classes, the highest of which were the free men (''a’ılū''), who like the upper classes could receive land in exchange for performing duties for the government, but who could not live on these lands since they were comparably small.{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|p=156}}

Below the free men were the unfree men{{Sfn|Düring|2020|p=101}} (''šiluhlu̮'').{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|p=156}} The unfree men had given up their freedom and entered the services of others on their own accord, and were provided with clothes and rations. Many of them probably originated as foreigners. Though similar to slavery, it was possible for an unfree person to regain their freedom by providing a replacement. During their service they were considered the property of the government rather than their employers.{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|p=156}} Other lower classes of the Middle Assyrian period included the ''ālāyû'' ("village residents"), ''ālik ilke'' (people recruited through the ''ilku'' system) and the ''hupšu'', though what these designations meant in terms of social standing and living standards is not known.{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|pp=156–157}}

The Middle Assyrian structure of society by and large endured through the subsequent Neo-Assyrian period. Below the higher classes of Neo-Assyrian society were free citizens, semi-free laborers and slaves. It was possible through steady service to the Assyrian state bureaucracy for a family to move up the social ladder. In some cases, stellar work conducted by a single individual enhanced the status of their family for generations to come. In many cases, Assyrian family groups, or "clans", formed large population groups within the empire, referred to as tribes. Such tribes lived together in villages and other settlements near or adjacent to their agricultural lands.{{Sfn|Bedford|2009|p=36}}

Slavery was an intrinsic part of nearly every society in the ancient Near East.{{sfn|de Ridder|2017|p=49}} There were two main types of slaves in ancient Assyria: [[chattel slaves]], primarily foreigners who were kidnapped or who were spoils of war, and [[Debt-slave|debt slaves]], formerly free men and women who had been unable to pay off their debts.{{sfn|de Ridder|2017|p=56}} In some cases, Assyrian children were seized by authorities due to the debts of their parents and sold off into slavery when their parents were unable to pay.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=84}} Children born to slave women automatically became slaves themselves,{{sfn|de Ridder|2017|p=57}} unless some other arrangement had been agreed to.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=83}} Though Old Babylonian texts frequently mention the geographical and ethnic origin of slaves, there is only a single known such reference in Old Assyrian texts (whereas there are many describing slaves in a general sense), a slave girl explicitly being referred to as [[Subartu|Subaraean]], indicating that ethnicity was not seen as very important in terms of slavery.{{sfn|de Ridder|2017|p=51}}

The surviving evidence suggests that the number of slaves in Assyria never reached a large share of the population.{{Sfn|Bedford|2009|p=36}} In the [[Akkadian language]], several terms were used for slaves, commonly ''wardum'', though this term could confusingly also be used for (free) official servants, retainers and followers, soldiers and subjects of the king. Because many individuals designated as ''wardum'' in Assyrian texts are described as handling property and carrying out administrative tasks on behalf of their masters, many may have in actuality been free servants and not slaves in the common meaning of the term.{{sfn|de Ridder|2017|p=49}} A number of ''wardum'' are also recorded as being bought and sold.{{sfn|de Ridder|2017|p=50}}

==== Status of women ====
[[File:Naqi'a crop.png|thumb|[[Naqi'a]], [[Sennacherib]]'s wife, 8th-7th centuries BC, the most documented woman in Assyrian history.{{sfn|Fink|2020}}]]
The main evidence concerning the lives of ordinary women in ancient Assyria is in administrative documents and law codes.{{Sfn|Bain|2017}} There was no legal distinction between men and women in the Old Assyrian period and they had more or less the same rights in society.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=81}} Since several letters written by women are known from the Old Assyrian period, it is evident that women were free to learn how to read and write.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=100}} Both men and women paid the same fines, could inherit property, participated in trade, bought, owned, and sold houses and slaves, made their own last wills, and were allowed to divorce their partners.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=84}}

Records of Old Assyrian marriages confirm that the [[dowry]] to the bride belonged to her, not the husband, and it was inherited by her children after her death.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=85}} Although they were equal legally, men and women in the Old Assyrian period were raised and socialized differently and had different social expectations and obligations. Typically, girls were raised by their mothers, taught to spin, weave, and help with daily tasks. Boys were taught trades by masters, later often following their fathers on trade expeditions. Sometimes the eldest daughter of a family was consecrated as a priestess. She was not allowed to marry and became economically independent.{{sfn|Michel|2017|pp=88–89}}

Wives were expected to provide their husbands with garments and food. Although marriages were typically [[monogamous]], husbands were allowed to buy a female slave in order to produce an heir if his wife was [[Infertility|infertile]]. The wife was allowed to choose that slave and the slave never gained the status of a second wife.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=85}} Husbands who were away on long trading journeys were allowed to take a second wife in one of the trading colonies, although with strict rules that must be followed: the second wife was not allowed to accompany him back to Assur and both wives had to be provided with a home to live in, food, and wood.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=85}}

The status of women decreased in the Middle Assyrian period, as can be gathered from laws concerning them among the [[Middle Assyrian Laws]]. Among these laws were punishments for various crimes, often sexual or marital ones.{{Sfn|Bain|2017}}{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|p=157}} Although they did not deprive women of all their rights and they were not significantly different from other ancient Near Eastern laws of their time, the Middle Assyrian Laws effectively made women second-class citizens.{{Sfn|Bain|2017}} It is not clear how strongly these laws were enforced.{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|p=157}}

These laws gave men the right to punish their wives as they wished. Among the harshest punishments written into these laws, for a crime not even committed by the woman, was that a raped woman would be forcibly married to her rapist.{{Sfn|Bain|2017}} These laws also specified that certain women were obliged to wear veils while out on the street, marital status being the determining factor. Some women, such as slave women and ''ḫarımtū'' women, were prohibited from wearing veils and others, such as certain priestesses, were only allowed to wear veils if they were married.{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|p=157}}

Not all laws were suppressive against women. Women whose husbands died or were taken prisoner in war, and who did not have any sons or relatives to support them, were guaranteed support from the government.{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|p=158}} The ''ḫarımtū'' women have historically been believed to have been prostitutes, but today, are interpreted as women with an independent social existence, i.e. not tied to a husband, father, or institution. Although most ''ḫarımtū'' appear to have been poor, there were noteworthy exceptions. The term appears with negative connotations in several texts. Their mere existence makes it clear that it was possible for women to live independent lives, despite their lesser social standing during that period.{{Sfn|Bain|2017}}

During the Neo-Assyrian period that followed, royal and upper-class women experienced increased influence.{{Sfn|Svärd|2015|pp=163–166}} Women attached to the Neo-Assyrian royal court sent and received letters, were independently wealthy, and could buy and own lands of their own.{{Sfn|Bain|2017}} The [[queens of the Neo-Assyrian Empire]] are better attested historically than queens of preceding periods of the culture. Under the Sargonid dynasty, they were granted their own military units. Sometimes they are known to have partaken in military campaigns alongside other units.{{Sfn|Svärd|2015|pp=163–166}}

Among the most influential women of the Neo-Assyrian period were [[Shammuramat]], queen of [[Shamshi-Adad V]] ({{reign}}824–811&nbsp;BC), who in the reign of her son [[Adad-nirari III]] ({{reign}}811–783&nbsp;BC) might have been regent and participated in military campaigns.{{Sfn|Kertai|2013|p=113}}{{Sfn|Svärd|2015|p=167}} Another is [[Naqi'a]], who influenced politics in the reigns of Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal.{{Sfn|Fink|2020}}