Descent to Ishtar

In the fifth millennium BCE, many changes started to develop that contributed to the rise of the first agrarian- urban centers. Between 5500 and 3500 BCE, Eridu and other villages in lower Mesopotamia and Upper Egypt developed into towns. This was the beginning foundation of the social structure where the Mesopotamian towns administered themselves through local assemblies. All male adults came together at these assemblies to decide on communal matters such as mutual help during the planting and harvesting seasons, and many more. Irrigation made it possible for townspeople to accumulate an agricultural surplus that protected them against any famines and allowed for population increases. Some people accumulated more grains than others and the first social distinctions along the lines of wealth appeared.
As cities expanded and multiplied, the uncultivated land that separated lower and central Mesopotamia disappeared. People started drawing borders, arguing over the access to water, and fought over the ownership of animals. This ultimately led to walls being built and recruitment of young military forces to contain the conflicts going around.
The wars among the city-states and kingdoms were important events in the creation of new patterns of gender relations. A ruling class emerged when dynastic families collaborated with other landowning families who remained on top. Below them were the merchants and craftspeople, and on the bottom of this hierarchical society were slaves and other negligible urban groups. The formation of hierarchical social structures did not stop with the rise of social classes.
In the ruling classes of Mesopotamia, female members held high positions as priestesses, queen consorts, and in some cases even queens. This urban development can be based on the myth of “The Descent of Ishtar,” where Ishtar, the goddess of sex, fertility, and war, must go to the underworld to rescue her lover Dumuzi. When she is in the underworld, all sexual