A Gender-Centered Perspective on Manners and Etiquette for Understanding the Historical Role of the Assyrian Queen

Assyrian history is apparently a male history, into which exceptional women occasionally intruded. In recent years, however, scholars have examined more closely the influence of women in Assyrian history, leading to several interesting and useful results that gave a voice to women from different perspectives. Building on the sociological notion whereby gender is produced by social situations and interactions among individuals, this paper explores those social rules which governed interactions between Assyrian kings and Assyrian queens in terms of proprieties of conduct – in short, what is nowadays defined as “manners” and “etiquette”, the primordial scaffolding of everyday interaction. By scrutinizing each piece of evidence that helps to identify behaviours and manners through the interactions between the king and the queen in first millennium Assyria, it is concluded that manners and etiquette were an essential strategy for highlighting social interactions between kings and queens in the formation of identity and role at the Assyrian court.