Gender Archaeology; An Analytical Review of Gender Symbols in Proto-Elamite Anthropomorphic Nominal Chain of Signs

Gender archaeology, the study of gender differences between men and women throughout history, is a significant subject that has evolved into a proper, prominent science in recent decades. Proto-Elamite is among the periods that give us great information regarding the status of genders. The abundance of tablets found from this period is among the oldest middle-eastern written scripts. Many of these are about paying wages to male and female laborers for manufacturing and stockbreeding jobs. Studying these texts provides essential information regarding the status of Iranian Plateau’s women at the end of the fourth millennium B.C. M۳۸۸ sign is one of the most significant gender signs known. It probably symbolizes a man or a particular social class in proto-Elamite texts. It’s also been used before signs that might show names written using a phonetical structure. M۱۲۴ is the opposite sign. It was probably considered a female gender sign. It has been used in some tablets or at the beginning of a series of phonetic signs (names). This research attempts to reconstruct two different signs at the beginning of the name sign-series. These signs probably assign gender to the names. Authors read ۱۵۰۰ tablets in Susa. Two hundred ninety-five of these tablets begin with M۱۲۴ or M۳۸۸ signs. There are more than ۱۰۰ phonetic signs. The chances of ۲۹۵ names being similar are slim. This strengthens our gender-specification hypotheses that M۱۲۴ and M۳۸۸ are gender symbols in the name sign-series.

Keywords:

Proto-Elamite , gender , Syllabic structure , Tablets of Susa