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The project aims at a comprehensive source study on the roles of women and goddesses in ancient Elam, taking into account current theories of gender studies and religious studies. Such studies exist with regard to neighbouring regions and societies (e.g., Old Babylonian, Old Syrian and Neo-Assyrian societies). Over the past three decades, Assyriology has increasingly adopted new methods and theories of gender-historical research. However, this recent development is not yet reflected in research on Elam. Although Elamite women have repeatedly been the subject of individual investigations, Elam remains a blind spot in gender-related research on religious history. Existing studies are on the one hand based on an isolated view of individual sources; on the other hand, they are strongly influenced by gender stereotypes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Due to the latter, Elamite sources could in the twentieth century become the subject of far-reaching theories on matriarchy. These theories require critical examination and revision.
This project is organized in three parts: First, the role of female dynasty members for succession to the throne is examined. The second part studies the function of female deities and their position within the pantheon. In these two parts the focus is on how gender and women's roles are discursively constructed. In the third part, the perspective is broadened to include questions about women's religious agency. Finally, the findings of all three sections are combined into an overall view. One question relevant to religious studies is whether and how social reality, ritual capacity for action and religious imagination relate to each other. From a gender-scientific point of view, it is relevant to see to what extent the representation of gender corresponds to the actual agency of women.
The project has two main goals: First, it strives for an intensive examination of previous research on Elamite women. One of the project's aims is to contribute to the theoretical discussion as to what extent theories from gender studies and religious studies can be applied to historical research on ancient cultures and societies. Second and no less, the project should provide a new interpretation of the historical data by systematically collecting relevant sources of various genres. This will also allow a revision of outdated translations of relevant inscriptions.
The main focus will be on texts. However, archaeological (and among them, especially visual) sources will also be consulted. The investigation begins in the Old-Elamite period with the first document genuinely identified as "Elamite". The numerous sources for the Late-Elamite period are numerous, but they will be used here selectively for comparison with and supplementation of results gained for earlier epochs.
The project covers a long period from the 24th to the 7th century BCE. This is possible for Elam because the source material is relatively limited and scattered over ages. The findings vary greatly depending on the period, both in terms of pure quantity and in terms of the distribution of different types of sources. Economic texts have not been handed down from all centuries, nor do we know royal inscriptions or sculptures from all centuries. Only a few aspects of women's lives are examined, but who seeks to assess the roles of women as fully as possible cannot limit his or her investigation to documents of only one era. A diachronic, comparative approach is necessary to connect and confront temporally disparate sources.
Prof. Dr. Wouter Henkelman
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris
wouter.henkelman@ephe.sorbonne.fr
