Ama-e

{{Short description|Ancient Sumerian businesswoman}} {{Infobox person | name = Ama-e | years_active = c. 2330 BC | spouse = Ur-Sara }} '''Ama-e ''' ({{fl|{{circa|2330 BC}}}}) was an Ancient Sumerian businesswoman. She is one of the earliest individual businesswomen of which any significant amount of information is known.

==Background==

She lived in the city of Umma during the reign of Sargon of Akkad.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Foster |first=Benjamin Read |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kJknAQAAIAAJ |title=Umma in the Sargonic Period |date=1982 |publisher=Academy |isbn=978-0-208-01951-6 |pages=69–75 |language=en}}</ref> She was married to Ur-Šara and her business transactions are well documented in the so-called Ur-Sara family archive.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Foster |first=Benjamin R. |date=1977 |title=Commercial Activity in Sargonic Mesopotamia |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4200046 |journal=Iraq |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=31–43 |doi=10.2307/4200046 |jstor=4200046 |s2cid=167589023 |issn=0021-0889|url-access=subscription }}</ref> While it does not appear to have been uncommon for women to conduct business, as it was regarded as a part of the household duties, no other individual businesswoman and her transactions from this period or before is as well documented as Ama-e.{{Cn|date=January 2024}}

==Business==

She rented land from the crown for cultivating, invested in buildings, traded in barley and metal, and had a network of business agents through which she bought and sold silver, wood, wool, food and perfume.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Budin |first1=Stephanie Lynn |title=Women in antiquity: real women across the ancient world |last2=Turfa |first2=Jean MacIntosh |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group |isbn=978-1-138-80836-2 |series=Rewriting antiquity |location=London New York |pages=106}}</ref>

Translator H. J. Marsman wrote:

<blockquote>In early Mesopotamian society, women appear to have acted quite independently [and] could stand surely for someone else [as with] the businesswoman Ama-e, who lived in Sargonic Umma. She engaged in trade involving grain, wool, and metals.<ref name="f494">{{cite book | last=Marsman | first=H.J. | title=Women in Ugarit and Israel: Their Social and Religious Position in the Context of the Ancient Near East | publisher=Brill | series=Oudtestamentische Studiën, Old Testament Studies | year=2021 | isbn=978-90-04-49340-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2s1GEAAAQBAJ&pg=PP3 | access-date=2024-11-10 | page=401}}</ref></blockquote>

Family business records show that she invested some of the profits in real estate and building projects and oversaw a widespread trade network.<ref name="y565">{{cite web | last=Mark | first=Joshua J. | title=Ten Great Ancient Mesopotamian Women | website=World History Encyclopedia | date=2022-10-12 | url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2084/ten-great-ancient-mesopotamian-women/ | access-date=2024-11-10}}</ref>

==See also== * Ahaha * Ninšatapada

==References== {{reflist}}

===Further reading=== * Morris Silver: ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=2GbgfLmCR-YC&dq=ancient+businesswoman+antiquity&pg=PA176 Economic Structures of Antiquity]''

Category:Ancient businesswomen Category:Ancient businesspeople Category:24th-century BC women Category:Sumerian people Category:Ancient Mesopotamian women Category:3rd-millennium BC births Category:3rd-millennium BC deaths