Esharra-hammat

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Esharra-hammat
Woman of the Palace[a]
Bornc. 712 BC
DiedFebruary 672 BC (aged c. 40)
SpouseEsarhaddon
IssueSerua-eterat (?)
Shamash-shum-ukin (?)
Ashurbanipal (?)
AkkadianEšarra-ḫammat

Esharra-hammat (Akkadian: Ešarra-ḫammat,[3] meaning "Ešarra is mistress")[4] was a queen of the Neo-Assyrian Empire as the primary consort[b] of Esarhaddon (r. 681–669 BC). Esharra-hammat had been married to Esarhaddon for over a decade by the time he became king, having married him c. 695 BC. Few sources from Esharra-hammat's lifetime that mention her are known and she is thus chiefly known from sources dating to after her death in February 672 BC, an event which deeply affected Esarhaddon. Esarhaddon had a great mausoleum constructed for her, unusual for burials of Assyrian queens, and had her death recorded in the Babylonian Chronicles. Esharra-hammat might have been the mother of Esarhaddon's most prominent children, i.e. the daughter Serua-eterat and the sons Ashurbanipal and Shamash-shum-ukin.

Life[]

Esharra-hammat married Esarhaddon c. 695 BC.[6] According to the Austrian British Assyriologist Gwendolyn Leick, Esharra-hammat might have been of Babylonian ancestry.[7] Esharra-hammat is known mainly from commemorative documents and inscriptions written after her death.[6] Among the few known inscriptions written by Esharra-hammat (i.e. written when she was alive) is an inscription on an eye-stone marking it as her property.[8]

Esharra-hammat's name translated literally means "Ešarra is mistress".[4] Ešarra was a temple,[4] and in Mesopotamian cosmology, the name Ešarra was also applied to a heavenly cosmic location.[9] The name is perhaps best interpreted as "[Mullissu of] Ešarra is mistress", referencing the goddess associated with the temple/realm. Alternative translations and interpretations include the name just referring to the temple/realm itself, or that it should be read "[Mullissu of] Ešarra gathers [all the powers]" or "[In] Ešarra, she is mistress". Given that no other invidivual by the name Esharra-hammat is known, it is possible that the name was assumed by the future queen upon her marriage to Esarhaddon.[4]

Esharra-hammat died, probably aged about 40, in February 672 BC.[6] She is the only known queen of Esarhaddon.[6] Although Esarhaddon was also only about 40, and would rule for a few more years, no incumbent queen is known from the sources after his death, and the position is obviously absent from preserved lists of officials from this time.[10] The death of Esharra-hammat, which had shortly before been preceded by the death of one of their infant children, sunk Esarhaddon into depression,[11] and he did not choose a new queen. Instead, some of the queen's responsibilities and duties were assigned to Esarhaddon's mother, Naqi'a.[10][12] Though there are two surviving accounts of Esharra-hammat's funeral and the rituals performed for her, her grave has not yet been located.[6] This grave was not just a simple site, or placed within the palace (as was the case for some earlier queens);[13] Esarhaddon had a great mausoleum constructed for Esharra-hammat[14][15] and he had her death recorded in the Babylonian Chronicles.[15]

It is known that Esarhaddon had other wives than Esharra-hammat, as his succession documents distinguish between the sons of "Ashurbanipal's mother" (Ashurbanipal being his son and successor) and the other sons.[14] It is as such not known for certain which among Esarhaddon's at least 18 children[16] were also Esharra-hammat's children.[14] It is possible that Esarhaddon's most prominent children, the eldest daughter Serua-eterat[6] and the sons Ashurbanipal and Shamash-shum-ukin, were Esharra-hammat's children.[17] Esharra-hammat's funeral was a grand affair, in which multiple distinguished women from the court and elsewhere partook,[18] including Esharra-hammat's "daughter" and "daughter-in-law". I 2013, the Assyriologist David Kertai assumed the daughter referenced to be Serua-eterat, and suggested that the daughter-in-law could be Libbali-sharrat, the wife of Ashurbanipal.[6]

At some point after Ashurbanipal was proclaimed Esarhaddon's heir later in 672 BC, three months after Esharra-hammat's death, Esarhaddon's chief exorcist Adad-shumu-usur reported to the king that Esharra-hammat's ghost had appeared to Ashurbanipal to confirm his status as heir. Partially quoting Ashurbanipal's words, Adad-shumu-usur presented the following account:[19]

"Ashur and Shamash ordained me to be the crown prince of Assyria because of her [Esharra-hammat's] righteousness". (And) her ghost blesses him in the same degree as he has revered the ghost: "May his descendants rule over Assyria!"[19]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Though usually used by historians today,[1] the title of "queen" as such did not exist in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The feminine version of the word for king (šarrum) was šarratum, but this was reserved for goddesses and foreign queens who ruled in their own right. Because the consorts of the kings did not rule themselves, they were not regarded as their equals and as such not called šarratum. Instead, the term reserved for the primary consort was MUNUS É.GAL (woman of the palace).[2] In Assyrian, this term was rendered issi ekalli, later abbreviated to sēgallu.[1]
  2. ^ Assyrian kings at times had multiple wives at the same time, but not all were recognized as queens (or "women of the palace"). Though it has been disputed in the past,[1][5] it appears that only one woman bore the title at any given time, as the term typically appears without qualifiers (indicating a lack of ambiguity).[1]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d Kertai 2013, p. 109.
  2. ^ Spurrier 2017, p. 173.
  3. ^ Novotny & Singletary 2009, p. 168.
  4. ^ a b c d Frahm 2014, p. 189.
  5. ^ Spurrier 2017, p. 166.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Kertai 2013, p. 119.
  7. ^ Leick 2002, Ashurbanipal and the fall of Nineveh.
  8. ^ Leichty 2011, pp. 313–314.
  9. ^ Horowitz 1998, p. 113.
  10. ^ a b Kertai 2013, p. 120.
  11. ^ Radner 2015, p. 50.
  12. ^ Svärd 2015, p. 161.
  13. ^ Spurrier 2017, p. 174.
  14. ^ a b c Novotny & Singletary 2009, p. 174–176.
  15. ^ a b Gansell 2018, p. 159.
  16. ^ Radner 2003, p. 170.
  17. ^ Leichty 2011, p. 313.
  18. ^ Chavalas 2014, p. 220.
  19. ^ a b Pongratz-Leisten 2006, p. 26.

Bibliography[]

  • Chavalas, Mark (2014). Women in the Ancient Near East: a Sourcebook. Oxford: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415448550.
  • Frahm, Eckart (2014). "Family Matters: Psychohistorical Reflections on Sennacherib and His Times". In Kalimi, Isaac; Richardson, Seth (eds.). Sennacherib at the Gates of Jerusalem: Story, History and Historiography. Leiden: BRILL. ISBN 978-9004265615.
  • Gansell, Amy Rebecca (2018). "In Pursuit of Neo-Assyrian Queens: An Interdisciplinary Model for Researching Ancient Women and Engendering Ancient History". In Svärd, Saana; Agnès, Garcia-Ventura (eds.). Studying Gender in the Ancient Near East. University Park: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1575067704.
  • Horowitz, Wayne (1998). Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 0-931464-99-4.
  • Kertai, David (2013). "The Queens of the Neo-Assyrian Empire". Altorientalische Forschungen. 40 (1): 108–124. doi:10.1524/aof.2013.0006. S2CID 163392326.
  • Leichty, Erle (2011). The Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (680–669 BC). University Park: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1575062099.
  • Leick, Gwendolyn (2002) [2001]. Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City. Penguin UK. ISBN 978-0141927114.
  • Novotny, Jamie; Singletary, Jennifer (2009). "Family Ties: Assurbanipal's Family Revisited". Studia Orientalia Electronica. 106: 167–177.
  • Pongratz-Leisten, Beate (2006). "Cassandra's Colleagues: Prophetesses in the Neo-Assyrian Empire". Canadian Society of Mesopotamian Studies Journal. 1 (1): 23–29.
  • Radner, Karen (2003). "The Trials of Esarhaddon: The Conspiracy of 670 BC". ISIMU: Revista sobre Oriente Próximo y Egipto en la antigüedad. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. 6: 165–183.
  • Radner, Karen (2015). Ancient Assyria: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-871590-0.
  • Spurrier, Tracy L. (2017). "Finding Hama: On the Identification of a Forgotten Queen Buried in the Nimrud Tombs". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 76 (1): 149–174. doi:10.1086/690911. S2CID 164734557.
  • Svärd, Saana (2015). "Changes in Neo-Assyrian Queenship". State Archives of Assyria Bulletin. XXI: 157–171.
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