Nadītu (; sometimes romanized as naditu, with the long vowel omitted) were a social class in ancient Mesopotamia, attested only in the Old Babylonian period. They were associated with the tutelary gods of specific cities, and are often considered to be priestesses by modern authors, though this conclusion is not universally accepted, and it is sometimes argued they should be treated as a fully separate class. The best documented community of nadītu resided in Sippar, where they were associated with the god Shamash. They were not allowed to marry or have biological children, though adoption was
Nadītu (; sometimes romanized as naditu, with the long vowel omitted) were a social class in ancient Mesopotamia, attested only in the Old Babylonian period. They were associated with the tutelary gods of specific cities, and are often considered to be priestesses by modern authors, though this conclusion is not universally accepted, and it is sometimes argued they should be treated as a fully separate class. The best documented community of nadītu resided in Sippar, where they were associated with the god Shamash. They were not allowed to marry or have biological children, though adoption was permitted. Women did not become nadītu by choice, and it is assumed the institution was meant to constrain their agency. However, in some cases they benefited from this status as they were allowed to manage their own business affairs, which lead to economic empowerment. Groups of nadītu are also attested in other cities, but they were not necessarily subject to the same regulations as in Sippar, for example those in service of Marduk, known from Babylon and other sites, were allowed to marry.
==Terminology and background== The term nadītu is a feminine noun derived from Akkadian nadû, "to throw down", "to cast away" or in agricultural context "to leave a field fallow", and on this basis it has been proposed it can be translated as "fallow", here to be understood metaphorically as "barren woman". It could be represented by the Sumerogram LUKUR, which originally designated a type of priestess possibly regarded as the "junior wife" of a god she served. Nadītu are also often described as priestesses in modern Assyriological literature, but this designation is not universally accepted, as while they most likely did spend a part of their day on prayer, there is no other indication that they had religious duties, and they did not prepare religious festivals or maintain temples, which lead to proposals that referring to them as a distinct social class might be preferable to classifying them as a subgroup of clergy. They were dedicated to the god of a specific city, and were expected to reside in it. As argued by Tonia Sharlach, their status can be compared to that of medieval Christian nuns and Marten Stol outright refers to them as "nuns". However, this approach has been criticized by Katrin De Graef, who argues it might lead to a misunderstanding of ancient institutions, and states using the original Akkadian nadītu is preferable.
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