Some Professions with Both Male and Female Members in the Presargonic E₂-MI₂ Corpus

Abstract

This paper will examine three professions (šu-i₂, tug₂-du₈, and i₃-du₈) in the Presargonic E₂-MI₂ Corpus that included both male and female members, with the aim of assessing their socio-economic status and roughly delineating their internal organization. A pattern seems to be discernible, namely that each group was comprised of men who held subsistence land and thus were listed in Type I ration lists, and men and women who held no land but received barley rations every month, and thus were listed in Type II or IV lists. Assuming that the ration lists and land allotment texts reflect the socio-economic status of a receiver, these documents should in turn reflect the workforce hierarchy.