Ešarra-ḫammat

Ešarra-ḫammat married Esarhaddon c. 695 BC.[7] According to the Austrian British Assyriologist Gwendolyn Leick, Ešarra-ḫammat might have been of Babylonian ancestry.[8] Ešarra-ḫammat is known mainly from commemorative documents and inscriptions written after her death.[7] Among the few known inscriptions written by Ešarra-ḫammat (i.e. written when she was alive) is an inscription on an eye-stone marking it as her property.[3]

Ešarra-ḫammat's name translated literally means "Ešarra is mistress".[5] Ešarra was a temple,[5] and in Mesopotamian cosmology, the name Ešarra was also applied to a heavenly cosmic location.[9] The name is perhaps best interpreted as "[Mullissu of] Ešarra is mistress", referencing the goddess associated with the temple/realm. Alternative translations and interpretations include the name just referring to the temple/realm itself, or that it should be read "[Mullissu of] Ešarra gathers [all the powers]" or "[In] Ešarra, she is mistress". Given that no other individual by the name Ešarra-ḫammat is known, it is possible that the name was assumed by the future queen upon her marriage to Esarhaddon.[5]

Ešarra-ḫammat died, probably aged about 40, in February 672 BC.[7] She is the only known queen of Esarhaddon.[7] Although Esarhaddon was also only about 40, and would rule for a few more years, no incumbent queen is known from the sources after his death, and the position is obviously absent from preserved lists of officials from this time.[10] The death of Ešarra-ḫammat, which had shortly before been preceded by the death of one of their infant children, sunk Esarhaddon into depression,[11] and he did not choose a new queen. Instead, some of the queen's responsibilities and duties were assigned to Esarhaddon's mother, Naqiʾa.[10][12] Though there are two surviving accounts of Ešarra-ḫammat's funeral and the rituals performed for her, her grave has not yet been located.[7] This grave was not just a simple site, or placed within the palace (as was the case for some earlier queens);[13] Esarhaddon had a great mausoleum constructed for Ešarra-ḫammat[14][15] and he had her death recorded in the Babylonian Chronicles.[15]

It is known that Esarhaddon had other wives than Ešarra-ḫammat, as his succession documents distinguish between the sons of "Ashurbanipal's mother" (Ashurbanipal being his son and successor) and the other sons.[14] It is as such not known for certain which among Esarhaddon's at least 18 children[16] were also Ešarra-ḫammat's children.[14] It is possible that Esarhaddon's most prominent children, the eldest daughter Šērūʾa-ēṭirat[7] and the sons Ashurbanipal and Shamash-shum-ukin, were Ešarra-ḫammat's children.[17] Ešarra-ḫammat's funeral was a grand affair, in which multiple distinguished women from the court and elsewhere partook,[18] including Ešarra-ḫammat's "daughter" and "daughter-in-law". In 2013, the Assyriologist David Kertai assumed the daughter referenced to be Šērūʾa-ēṭirat, and suggested that the daughter-in-law could be Libbāli-šarrat, the wife of Ashurbanipal.[7]

At some point after Ashurbanipal was proclaimed Esarhaddon's heir later in 672 BC, three months after Ešarra-ḫammat's death, Esarhaddon's chief exorcist Adad-šumu-uṣur reported to the king that Ešarra-ḫammat's ghost had appeared to Ashurbanipal to confirm his status as heir. Partially quoting Ashurbanipal's words, Adad-šumu-uṣur presented the following account:[19]

"Ashur and Shamash ordained me to be the crown prince of Assyria because of her [Ešarra-ḫammat's] righteousness". (And) her ghost blesses him in the same degree as he has revered the ghost: "May his descendants rule over Assyria!"[19]