Text: Northern Autumn
Edited by Beiqiu
Their situation is not the same as it is today. In ancient times, women did not give birth to their first child after the age of 35, but to countless children, and often belonged to the upper classes.
In ancient times, the lifespans of women (and men) who survived dangerous infancy and childhood were not much different from those of modern humans. If it weren't for infections, complications and death during childbirth, malnutrition, and strenuous physical labor, women (and men) would not have survived and reproduced very differently in ancient times. Even in ancient times, it was possible for an elderly mother to give birth.
I. Marriage and Reproduction in the Anatolian Province of Hetit
The Heti were an Anatolian people whose empire included parts of the Northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia, with Hatusa as the capital of their kingdom.
The highest peak of the Heti Empire was located between the mid-18th and 13th centuries BC, ending in the early 12th century BC. Marriages in Anatolia ensure the continuation of the family and provide social stability, and arranged marriages are the norm.
Marriage is a legal contract between a girl's father and another man or two families. Once they get married, they will have a child very quickly. Childlessness is considered a great misfortune and a curse. People who have fertility difficulties can seek God's help and have children through prayers and rituals. Abortion or abortion was punishable by law at the time.
Two relevant evidences have been preserved about the advanced age of pregnancy among the Heti people, one from historical records and the other from mythological narratives. The People's Protection Unit is known as one of the elders of the town, and all of his peers in the town council have grown up. As a result, it was argued that he and his wife had reached old age, although the text did not specify their exact age.
This also implies that the reason why the couple has no children is because of the incompetence of APPU, or perhaps because the spouses are completely ignorant of sexuality. IN ONE CHARACTERISTIC SCENE, APPU AND HIS WIFE FALL ASLEEP IN BED COMPLETELY CLOTHED. At some point, the woman wakes up and wonders if her husband did something with her this time. Finally, APPU prays to the sun god and sacrifices for an heir. God gave him strength and advised him to get drunk and then lie down with his wife. So, the wife became pregnant and gave birth to two sons.
Around 1255 BC, King Hatuser III sent a letter to Pharaoh Ramses II of Egypt. King Heti asked Ramses to send an Egyptian doctor to help Hattusili's sister, Princess Matanazi, give birth to a child.
By this time Matanazi had reached old age and had no children, but in Hatusari's letter she was already a woman of 50 years. In his reply, Ramses said that Matanazzi was actually older, already over 60 years old.
Ramses claimed that there was no medicine in the world that could make a woman of such an advanced age give birth to a child! Nevertheless, Ramses sent an Egyptian medical specialist and the materials needed to prepare the medicine, hoping that God's intervention would bring a miracle to Matanazi.
II. Marriage and Reproduction in Ancient Mesopotamia
The earliest civilization in ancient Mesopotamia was the civilization of the Sumerians, a mysterious people who flourished in South American Sopotamia during the third millennium BC.
In the second millennium BC, the Semitic population began to rule over the entire region of Mesopotamia. They were organized in two kingdoms that spoke the same language (Akkadian), Assyria in the north and Babylon in the south. The independence of the two kingdoms existed at an end in 539 BC, when Babylon was conquered by the Persians. However, the language and culture of ancient Mesopotamia persisted until the Roman period.
Between 2400 and 2350 BC, the ceremonial union of two men was recorded for the first time on a cylindrical seal of the ancient Akkadian people in Mesopotamia, with depictions and texts of the ritual. Marriage and family were of central importance in ancient Mesopotamian culture, as they ensured the continuation of the family and provided social stability and order.
Arranged marriages are normal and are usually agreed upon after extensive negotiations between representatives of the two families of the bride and groom. Marriage constitutes a legal contract between two families. A large number of prenuptial contracts were kept on Mesopotamian tablets, written in cuneiform. Girls can get engaged and married at a very young age. The bride mentioned in the Assyrian text is about 50 centimeters or 1 meter tall, so this can be considered a very young child.
This practice is mocked by a Sumerian proverb preserved on a tablet from the early 2nd century BC: "I will not marry a wife who is only three years old, like a donkey." Underage brides live with their families until they reach adulthood. Later, she lived with her husband, but he could visit the bride at her house and get married there. Girls marry between the ages of 14 and 18 at the latest.
The minimum legal age for a boy's engagement is 10 years old. In fact, most men marry later, between the ages of 26 and 32. The husband is usually much older than the bride (10 years older or older).
The main purpose of a marital union is to procreate. The married couple is expected to have children.Childlessness is considered a great misfortune. If there were no children all the time, they would perform special rituals, magic and prescriptions that were used to impregnate barren women.
In ancient Mesopotamia, the practice of adoption was very common and is confirmed in numerous documents. If the wife is proven to be infertile, the husband can divorce her or marry a second wife or mistress for the purpose of procreation. Not being able to have children is often seen as a woman's fault. Breastfeeding for 2 to 3 years. As with other ancient and traditional cultures, this can be used as a natural means of contraception.
In the various Mesopotamian texts, there are several hints and indications that in old maternal age. In a Sumerian proverb, a proud father describes his wife as "the mother of eight young men who are still capable of having more children" and "lying passively", possibly for mating. Between 2500 BC and 2400 BC, married couples each had eight children. In ancient Mesopotamia, many wealthy families had six or eight children.
According to the epic of Gilgamesh, a man with seven sons was most blessed. Several Sumerian kings in the third millennium BC had eight or more children. Between 2094 and 2046 BC, it is said that each family had 18 or 20 children, but it is not clear whether these children were the children of a single wife.
III. Marriage and Reproduction in Ancient Iran (Persia)
As preserved in the Zoroastrian scriptures and traditions, a boy becomes a man at the age of 15, a practice that is presumed to have occurred in various regions and periods of antiquity in Iran. It is also the minimum age of marriage for young men.
Girls, on the other hand, can marry when they are minors: some marry at the age of 9, although it is common for girls to marry at the age of 12.
Zoroastrian law prohibits marrying her against her will, but a husband can divorce her against her will if the wife has no children. In the Persepolis Fortified Edition, it is recorded that a female worker who is the mother of a newborn baby receives an additional food ration; It is important to note that mothers of male babies receive twice as much food as mothers of female babies.
IV. Marriage and Reproduction in Ancient Israel
In ancient Israel, girls were usually engaged between the ages of 12 and 15 and married at the ages of 15 and 16, while young men were usually married between the ages of 19 and 20.
A woman begins giving birth in her teens and continues to work until she is 40 years old. During this time, she could tolerate up to six or more children, but not all of them survived.
In ancient Israel, a typical family would have three to four surviving children. Long-term breastfeeding can stop menstruation for up to 18 months, which is a natural means of contraception. Other contraceptive measures, such as interruption of intercourse and anal sex, are explicitly condemned in the Bible and rabbinic literature.
According to traditional Jewish law, a person's Jewish identity is passed down through the mother. Idleness brings mental and emotional trauma, social distancing and failure to fulfill the intended religious and social roles.
It is evident from the text of the Hebrew Bible that barren women suffer great shame because their tediousness, whether overt or implicit, is attributed to some hidden error, sin or defect.
Raising children was part of God's original plan and a blessing to all the people of Israel. In many biblical narratives, the barren woman turned to God's prayers and prayers, and she was promised a divine angel or messenger. At least in ancient Hebrew legends, some women gained offspring in old age through divine intervention.
The "Promised Son" has a unique destiny: he will eventually be consecrated to God. As the divine commandment in the book of Exodus indicates, "God who opens the womb has the right to demand life that arises from it".
In the Bible of ancient Israel, there are constant reports of pregnancy in old age. There are six barren women in the Bible: three of the four matrilineal women, Tamasala, Rebecca, and Rachel, Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel, "the anonymous wife of Monoah," the mother of Samson, and the followers of the prophet Elisha.
The Bible and the rabbinic narrative of these women report some extreme reproductive ages: Thus, at the time of Isaac's birth, Sarah and Abraham were both 90 years old, and Abraham was 100 years old. According to early rabbinical comments on Genesis, Rachel was engaged to Jacob at the age of 22 and was still barren at the age of 14. Finally, she gave birth at the age of 36.
A late rabbinic note in the book of Samuel states that Hannah was 130 years old when she gave birth to Samuel. According to the Babylonian Talmudic Code, the same age is attributed to the time when Chochbed brought Moses into the world.
The anonymous "Wife of Manoa" and the "Great Woman of Shunnam" were both barren for many years. According to explanatory commentaries on Judaism, Ruth was 40 years old, and her husband Boaz was 80 years old, and Obaid was born.
The same theme was found in the early Christian tradition. In the Gospel of Luke and the New Testament, Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah are said to be very old and past the age of childbearing, and that they brought their child, John the Baptist, into the world as a result of divine intervention.
In a fictional legend recorded in the Book of John's Manda, Elizabeth was 88 years old and Zechariah was 99 years old when John was born.
In all other cases in the Bible, women are either within the age limit for childbearing or are generally reported to have given birth after a long period of barrenness, with no exact age. The most extravagant and incredible indication of age is in the later rabbinical writings, the Talmud and Mirilash Commentary, which even describes childbirth at the supernatural age of 130 years.
Rabbinic critics tend to fabricate or replicate such myths and legends to highlight the miraculous power and grace of God, which can make the unthinkable happen.
All the ancient Hebrew narratives, whether they are representations of realism or are about to enter a state of wonder and mythology, show that among the ancient Jews maternal age was known, albeit extraordinary. Although it was an extraordinary phenomenon among the ancient Jews. Although it was an extraordinary phenomenon among the ancient Jews.