Describing women as a separate topic of study has its problems. Women are not a "special issue," but form half of the population. Furthermore, we face the obvious problem of scope: Mesopotamia covers a huge area, over a period of three thousand years, and there was considerable variation in the roles of women within this geographical and chronological framework. Additionally, textual evidence from Mesopotamia is very uneven. Some areas and time periods are very well documented but there are also huge gaps. However, we can begin to fill in some of these gaps with information from the archaeological record and iconographic evidence. Despite these challenges, we felt it was necessary to give the reader some basic background information regarding some of the most salient features in Mesopotamian women's lives. Thus, the following identifies some features of women's lives which werein most places and timescommon denominators for them. In this chapter, we first outline women's position in society, followed by a discussion of women in and out of matrimony. Finally, elite women's lives in some specific periods and places are described. 1 1 Several studies have been published regarding Mesopotamian women. In addition to those mentioned in the footnotes of this chapter, some of the most relevant and/or most recent volumes include: Mark Chavalas (ed.

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