Abstract
As a rule, marriage in ancient Mesopotamia and adjacent areas (and also in ancient Egypt) was monogamous, with couples comprising a husband and a wife. But there were exceptions. Especially within the higher echelons of society, husbands were allowed to marry a second woman if their first wife proved unable to bear them children (Westbrook: 103–11); and if merchants engaged in long-distance trade lived over extended periods of time, separated from their spouses, in “colonies” far away from home, such as the Old Assyrian merchants from Aššur who conducted their business in the central Anatolian city of Kaneš (Kültepe), they could likewise take an additional wife. The status of such women vis-à-vis the first wife remained, however, inferior, and the unions with them were temporary, with the women staying behind when the merchants returned home after a few years (Michel).