User:12Anonymous!/Zizizi (Assyrian)
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Assyrian Businesswoman Zizizi[edit]
Zizizi was an Assyrian businesswoman at Kanesh[1], wife of an Assyrian merchant, and known for expressive letters delivered on ancient clay tablets written in cuneiform[2]. Her journey started around 1860 B.C., when she followed her first husband to the Anatolian[3] city of Kanesh. He later died and she remarried a local. Her father Imdi-ilum and mother Ishtar-bashti responded to her leaving home by stating ‘we are not important in your eyes”[4]. In Kanesh Zizizi became a successful moneylender, for “The tablets women wrote indicate that they served crucial roles in trading networks, managed finances and workers, and pushed against societal expectations...”[5]. An archived tablet found at Kanesh, holds a letter from Zizizi to her parents, that was written during an outbreak of disease, and shows her expressing anguish during that time. The tablet copy 688 found in a private archive at Kanesh displays Zizizi expressing her emotional circumstances by stating “I can’t manage anymore.”[6] In the year 1948, Turkish archaeologist excavated the previous tablet along with others, most of them being found in the town northeast of a mound in Kültepe[7]. They were specifically found in the storerooms of merchant houses[8], along with 22,200 tablets found in the town.[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Bouscaren 2023, 42.
- ^ Michel 2020, page 1 of introduction.
- ^ Michel 2020, page 1 of introduction.
- ^ Archived tablet 9233, Bouscaren 2023, 41.
- ^ Bouscaren 2023, 42.
- ^ Tablet copy 688 found in private archive at Kanesh, Bouscaren 2023, 45.
- ^ Michel 2020, page 7 of introduction.
- ^ Michel 2020, page 8 of introduction.
Sources[edit]
Bouscaren, Durrie. “Assyrian Women of Letters.” Archaeology, November/December 2023, 40-45.
Michel, Cécile. Women of Assur and Kanesh: Texts from the Archives of Assyrian Merchants. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2020.