A new approach to ancient archives : a re-evaluation of "daughtership" adoption at Nuzi
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Fraughton, Lindsay
issued: 2021-04-22T21:56:16Z
issued: 2021
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: In the early 20th century, excavations at the archaeological site of Yorghan Tepe in Northeastern Iraq revealed the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1450-1340 BCE) city of Nuzi. Over the course of four archaeological seasons, approximately 5000 cuneiform tablets were excavated from Nuzi and its surrounding areas. The tablets reveal that the people of Nuzi had many nuanced legal practices, including but not limited to lawsuits, land claims, marriages, hiring contracts, and many kinds of adoption. One adoption practice that has been the subject of scholarly inquiry for almost a century is known as “marriage adoption” or “daughtership adoption.” This practice involved young women being adopted before they were of marriageable age, to be married off to a future husband by their adopter rather than by their natal family. Although there is evidence for the adoption of young women for marriage across the ancient Near East, this practice is by far the most attested at Nuzi. Moreover, Nuzians had a unique approach to marriage adoption where the young women could be adopted in “daughtership,” “daughter-in-law-ship,” or “daughter and daughter-in-law-ship” by the adopter. Scholars have questioned how these three types of marriage adoption differ, and in addition, why this small, Hurrian town used the practice so frequently in its short 4-5 generations. This thesis seeks to answer these two questions. Toward this end, I rely not only on the content of the contracts, but also on the people who used them. Earlier scholarship has overlooked the archival contexts of the daughtership adoptions, in particular the fact that two wealthy households in Nuzi account for 40% of extant daughtership tablets. Through close reading of the daughtership contracts from private archives of Teḫip-tilla, Tulpun-naya and their respective households, I demonstrate that daughtership adoption at Nuzi is a flexible practice that had implications beyond finding a future spouse for the adoptee. Moreover, I argue that d…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/77936
note: A NEW APPROACH TO ANCIENT ARCHIVES: A RE-EVALUATION OF “DAUGHTERSHIP” ADOPTION AT NUZI by Lindsay Fraughton B.A., University of Alberta, 2017 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Ancient Culture, Religion and Ethnicity) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2021 © Lindsay Fraughton, 2021 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled: A New Approach to Ancient Archives: A Re-evaluation of “Daughtership” Adoption at Nuzi submitted by Lindsay Fraughton in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Ancient Culture, Religion and Ethnicity Examining Committee: Dr. Sara Milstein, Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, UBC Supervisor Dr. Katharine Huemoeller, Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract In the early 20th century, excavations at the archaeological site of Yorghan Tepe in Northeastern Iraq revealed the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1450-1340 BCE) city of Nuzi. Over the course of four archaeological seasons, approximately 5000 cuneiform tablets were excavated from Nuzi and its surrounding areas. The tablets reveal that the people of Nuzi had many nuanced legal practices, including but not limited to lawsuits, land claims, marriages, hiring contracts, and many kinds of adoption. One adoption practice that has been the subject of scholarly inquiry for almost a century is known as “marriage adoption” or “daughtership adoption.” This practice involved young women being adopted before they were of marriageable age, to be married off to a future husband by their adopter rather than by their natal family. Although there is evidence for the adoption of young women for marriage across the ancient Near East, this practice is by far the most attested at Nuzi.…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2021-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0396924
language: eng
degree discipline: Ancient Culture, Religion and Ethnicity
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/77936