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Destabilising Homosexuality in šumma ālu

  • Chaya Kasif ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 11. September 2025

Abstract

My research interrogates four omens from Tablet 104 of šumma ālu to destabilise and enrich understandings of supposed ‘homosexuality’ in ancient Mesopotamia. Studies of sex and gender in the ancient Near East have increasingly attracted attention from scholars, and these omens have proven to be increasingly relevant. However, Assyriologists are limited in their theoretical approaches to šumma ālu as their understanding of sexuality is often limited to a medico-legal framework. To understand Mesopotamian sexualities differently, I utilise the theoretical principle that sexuality is constructed through the discursive language cultures use to describe it. This study contributes new methodological and theoretical perspectives to the study of the ‘homosexual’ šumma ālu omens, using a close philological study of the language of the omens to generate a translation that embraces and interrogates its inherent polyvalency. Also novel to the study of these omens is their analysis in context, alongside the other sex omens of Tablets 103 and 104. What is revealed is that Mesopotamian sexuality was complex and expansive, and that many of these omens were not actually concerning ‘homosexual’ behaviour at all.


Corresponding author: Chaya Kasif, History and Archaeology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, E-mail:

Abbreviations

CAD

Roth, M. T., et al. (eds.). (1956–2011). The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. 21 vols. (A-Z). Chicago: Oriental Institute.

CCP 3.5.103

Jiménez, E. (2017). ‘Commentary on Ālu 103, 104 alt, and […] (CCP 3.5.103)’. Cuneiform Commentaries Project (E. Frahm, E. Jiménez, M. Frazer, and K. Wagensonner), 2013–2025. Online: ccp.yale.edu/P237781.

CDA

Black, J., et al. (eds.). (2000). A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian. 2nd ed. Santag 5. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

eBL

Boddy, K. and Mittermaryer, C. (2023–2025). Šumma Ālu 80–120 (Human behavior, Project Ālu Geneva). Electronic Babylonian Library. Online: ebl.lmu.de/corpus/D/2/6.

ePSD

The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary. Online: psd.museum.upenn.edu.

ETCSL

Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature. Online: etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk.

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Received: 2024-06-26
Accepted: 2025-08-29
Published Online: 2025-09-11
Published in Print: 2025-11-25

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