Ox of One's Own

Shulgi-simti is an important example of a woman involved in sponsoring religious activities though having a family life. An Ox of One s Own will be of interest to Assyriologists, particularly those interested in Early Mesopotamia, and scholars working on women in religion. An Ox of One s Own centers on the archive of a woman who died about 2050 B.C., one of King Shulgi s many wives. Her birth name is unknown, but when she married, she became Shulgi-simti, Suitable for Shulgi. Attested for only about 15 years, she existed among a court filled with other wives, who probably outranked her. A religious foundation was run on her behalf whereby courtiers, male and female, donated livestock for sacrifices to an unusual mix of goddesses and gods. Previous scholarship has declared this a rare example of a queen conducting women s religion, perhaps unusual because they say she came from abroad. The conclusions of this book are quite different. An Ox of One s Own lays out the evidence that another woman was queen at this time in Nippur while Shulgi-simti lived in Ur and was a third-ranking concubine at best, with few economic resources. Shulgi-simti s religious exercises concentrated on a quartet of north Babylonian goddesses.