The kar.kid/harimtu, Prostitute or Single Woman? A Reconsideration of the Evidence

The kar.kid/harimtu, Prostitute or Single Woman? A Reconsideration of the Evidence, Julia Assante's 1998 article in Ugarit-Forschungen, argues that there is no Sumerian or Akkadian word meaning prostitute, that evidence often read as prostitution actually describes women without patriarchal status, and that there is no real evidence for sacred prostitution in Mesopotamia. Its strength is that it is peer reviewed scholarship offering a close reassessment of the primary textual evidence. Its limit is that it argues one contested position in an ongoing scholarly disagreement, so the older reading it argues against should also be checked to see the debate fairly.