The Veil in Ancient Near Eastern Religions and Cultures Some Remarks

In the texts from Syrian cities like Ebla, Mari, Emar and Ugarit there are several words indicating textiles destined to cover the head and sometimes also the shoulders of women. In the Ebla texts PAD (-TÚG2) (Sumerian), gú-du-mu/ma-ga-da-ma-tum/ ma-da-ma-tum (Semitic) is a textile, often of linen, used to cover the body, the shoulders and the head. During the great ritual of royalty at Ebla the queen received the veil only after several days of trip. The veil at Ebla is destined mostly, but not only, for brides. Married women in Syria did not always wear the veil.


Introduction
In modern European languages, the word 'veil' (voile, Schleier, velo, etc.) can mean a simple object, one of the temporary forms of body covering, a piece of textile, a headdress, a robe, an accessory, an object of protection, a type of fab-ric or a garment connected with female social and religious life (for example the veil of the bride, or of nuns or that used during mourning). The veil covers, hides, obscures and reveals, or distinguishes. Sometimes it is gender-oriented, has a religious value, a normative function, or signifies identity. The veil is a symbol of oriental exoticism and, of course, also of the Islamic world and is considered an emblem of (real or supposed) oppression of Muslim women.
The veil has been studied by semiologists, historians of religion, historians of art and anthropologists. In the field of historical sciences and historical-religious studies, reflection on the veil and the veiled body starts from the assumption that there is no veil used to cover the body or a part thereof in an innocuous way, nor is there an act of revealing that it is completely innocent. The intentions and implications of veiling and unveiling are part of the codes established in cultural and social contexts. The possibility, and sometimes the obligation, to show the body and/or face, freeing oneself of the covering or covering veil, as well as the need to escape the gaze of others, may depend on normative factors and take on ideological meanings.
The meanings and values are essentially determined by the triple function connecting the visual, spatial and ethical dimensions that condition the use of the veil as a "garment" on the one hand and the product of an ideology on the other. The dynamics of visibility and invisibility of the body (or of some of its parts) regulate the public and private spheres of social life not only with words and the force of law, but also with images.
We use the word 'veil' to indicate something light and often transparent usually to put on the head. However, in the Greek world and also in the ancient Near Eastern pre-classical world, different types of textiles have been used to cover the head and 'veil' is represented by different realities.
Sometimes, it is a true veil in our acceptation of the word, although it seems to cover only the head and not the whole face. Various cases of veils are known in the classical world, which instead cover the whole face and not just the head. The girls, especially when they marry, go to meet the groom with their face covered and the groom will uncover their face by lifting the veil. This act seems to allude to the fact that only the husband will then be able to have a sexual relationship with the married girl. The veil would then be a metaphor for defloration, represented by the veil being raised. 1 In the classical world the veil is a garment used in case of mourning (Penelope), for a bride (Andromache) or a symbol of virginity and purity (Nausicaa). 2 2 Covering the Head in Mesopotamia and Syria Even if there are many texts from the Near East regarding textiles, and textiles destined for women, veils are not often mentioned, and there is no data to understand whether they are a complete garment or simply a veil on the head. The matter of the veil is probably one of the most complex to analyse. Around 2000, the Centre for Textile Research (CTR) in Copenhagen launched its research programme to investigate textile production from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age from the archaeological, experimental and linguistic points of view. The CTR together with the textile research programme launched in Paris-Nanterre by CN-RS organised several conferences on different topics regarding textiles, which produced several volumes. 3 Despite many books that have studied garments for women, the veil appears in only a few cases. Furthermore it is difficult to integrate or to support our written evidence with the little iconographic evidence. 4 Studying the terminology of textiles, it is evident that in all the cultures of the ancient Near East a woman could cover her head with different types of fabrics. In Sumerian, the term 'gada', which indicates linen, is also used to indicate veil, or a linen textile used to cover. It is sometimes translated as 'veil'.
From the texts, especially those from the Syrian region and from centres like Ebla, Mari, Emar and Ugarit, it is possible to conclude that women covered their heads on some occasions but not regularly even if they were married. However, it is not possible to infer that the veil was the typical garment given to women for their marriage; in many cases of weddings there is no mention of the veil.
The Mesopotamian goddesses do not have a veil. Either they have the distinctive horned cap, as a mark of their divinity or, as in the case of the goddess Gula, they have a high headdress or elaborate headdresses.
The statue of the goddess Nanaya and statues of other female deities 5 were covered by kusitu-garment, a ceremonial garment used in religious ceremonies with particularly rich and brilliant decoration, but it is impossible to know if it covered also the heads of other statues.
Few statues of goddesses have survived but the other iconographic evidence documents the presence of different headdresses.
In the first tablet of the Maqlû exorcism for the gods of the night 6 there are spells used in the magic rite to dissolve witchcraft. It is said: Spell. I call upon you, gods of the night, with you I invoke the night, veiled bride,... kal-la-tum kut-tùm-tum is normally translated 'veiled bride'; kuttumtum from the Semitic verb *ktm, Akk. katāmu 'to cover' (with a veil). From this text it appears that the bride could be veiled.
The goddess Inanna does not wear a veil. When she descends into the underworld, the doorman opens the first door for her and strips her of the large crown on her head. Then, eventually, life is returned to Inanna. He lets her out from the seventh door and returns the large crown to her head. Inanna, and also Ishtar, never have a veil. In some cases, the goddess has a crown.
In texts with myths regarding marriages of deities such as the marriage of Martu, there is no mention of the veil. The princess who is ready to marry the young Martu prepares her dowry but the veil is not mentioned.
In two myths with the marriages of deities, the marriage of the god Enlil with the goddess Sud and that of the god Enlil with the goddess Ninlil there is no mention of a veil on the heads of the goddesses, also because we do not have a description of the marriage itself.

3
Covering the Head in the Texts from Syria. The Ebla Texts (III Millennium BC) The Ebla archives of third millennium BC Syria are very rich written sources on textiles. The texts found in 1975 in the large archive L. 2769 and its vestibule L. 2875 include more than 14,000 tablets and fragments, and their largest corpus is that of the monthly accounts of textile deliveries. These are more than 600 large tablets on which the Eblaite scribes registered the deliveries of textiles on different occasions, starting from the period of the penultimate king of Ebla, Irkab-damu.
Despite the presence of so many texts related to textiles, it is difficult to know the wardrobe of ancient Eblaites for several reasons. First of all, the texts mention mainly fabrics and not garments. It is hard to identify the types of textiles, also because we do not have examples of them from the archaeological finds of the time; the iconography does not help very much either. 7 6 For a similar ritual at Ebla see infra.
7 For the iconography on textiles and veil see the article of Nadali in this volume, with previous bibliography.

The Veil, a Textile to Cover
Considering the data from all the Ebla texts, it is evident that some textiles are given mostly to men, while others such as the zara 6 -TÚG are given mostly to women, and especially to the important ladies of the court. When we have a number of zara-textiles, it is almost certain that it is followed by a list of the most important ladies of the court. Other less important female courtiers are quoted in hierarchical order after the most important, and normally receive textiles-NI. NI 10 that are sometimes also given to men.
Zara-textiles are attributed to men, although rarely, but it is not possible to say whether they were given to them on some particularly important occasions or if they were for their wives. Therefore, even if it is probable that they were particularly precious because they are attributed to the important women on some special occasions such as marriages, rituals etc., we cannot be sure which type of textile we are dealing with.
In the Ebla texts, several words are used to indicate something to protect the head: • níg-lá-sag: a textile to tie around the head, given to men on different occasions, to messengers who must travel on long trips. • aktum-TÚG ti-TÚG sag en: a textile destined for the head of the king; turban. • PAD(-TÚG) (Sumerian) = gú-du-mu/ma-ga-da-ma-tum/ma-da-matum translated as 'veil', but in fact a textile, often of linen, of different colours (white, black, yellow-green, embroidered), used to cover (the body, the shoulders and eventually also the head). 11 • J. Pasquali, in a first paper (1997), studied the Semitic word maga-da-ma-tum and its variants, 12 without a possible translation of the word. Several years later, thanks to the use of both the words gú-du-mu and ma-ga-da-ma-tum and of their Sumerian translation (PAD(-TÚG)) in the texts of the great ritual of royalty, he was able to conclude that these words indicate the veil. 13 • gú-du-mu, Semitic reading of the Sumerian PAD(-TÚG), is a noun from Semitic *ktm, Akkadian katāmu and can be compared with Akkadian kutummu used in Syrian Mari texts to indicate the veil. • ma-ga-da-ma-tum with the graphic variant ma-da-ma-tum is a noun (scheme ma12a-3) of the Semitic *ktm; probably is the Eblaite writing of the word PAD(-TÚG). • PAD(-TÚG) in the Ebla texts often has the meaning 'something used to cover', 'to cover' and it is translated also as 'to cover with a veil', 'to veil'. This textile is mostly of linen. TM.75.G.10187 (king Ishar-damu, vizier Ibbi-zikir, month ig-za) rev. III 9-15: 20 aktum-TÚG ti-TÚG 1 dùl-TÚG Ma-rí ki 1 gada-TÚG mu 4 (TÚG)-mu en 1 gada-TÚG/ PAD/ ti-TÚG/en; again 1 linen textile is used to cover/to protect the ti-textiles of the king.
In fact, in a ritual for the gods of the night from archive L 2712 of Ebla, 14 seven black-cloaked women take part. In the text (rev I 1-5) is written: 7 dam ga-du-ma-tum gu-dùl-TÚG gi 6 gaba d Gi 6 -an: 'seven women covered in a black cloak stand in front of the gods of the night'. ga-du-ma-tum can be interpreted as /kattum-ā t-um/, verbal adjective of *ktm (to cover). Here the women are covered with a black textile-gu-dùl, which covers the body and possibly also the head. I prefer to translate 'covered' and not 'veiled'. The women are covered with gu-dùl textiles.
The gods mentioned in this Eblaite rite recall the gods of the first tablet of the Maqlû ritual in a surprising way: the bride of the god of the night is indicated by the same term, kallatum.

The Veil, PAD(-TÚG), Given to Girls as Dowry on Their Marriage
The veil PAD(-TÚG), gú-du-mu / ma-ga-da-ma-tum / ma-da-ma-tum in Semitic, 15 is destined mostly, but not only, for brides. It is mentioned in the dowry of princesses of the Eblaite court or of other girls of important Eblaite families on their marriage; in the texts there are lists of textiles given with jewels 16 as part of the dowry. 17 I would like to quote some examples.
In  17 For examples of dowries see Biga 1996, 63-72;2014, 77-8;2018;Archi 2002. 18 The text TM.75.G.1679 20 with the dowry for Tiabarzu, a girl of the family of the vizier Ibrium, registers a long list of precious gold objects and several textiles destined for this girl and some textiles destined for male and female personages who participated in the ceremony.
It should be noted that the veil, which is normally given to the bride, is not mentioned here. It is difficult to suppose that the complete dowry for the girl was written on another tablet. We can conclude that the veil was not always given among the textiles of the dowries.
Another example of a dowry (and of textiles distributed to people involved in the marriage ceremony) is in the text TM.75.G.1776 (king Ishar-damu, vizier Ibrium, month lost), obv. I 1-III 11. 21 Among the textiles given to the princess Zanehi-Mari, who married the son of Ibara of the city of Ashu, one gada-textile is quoted. In this text, there is no veil (PAD-TÚG); probably the textile gada here indicates the veil.
The deliveries of textiles on the marriage of princess Tagrish-damu, daughter of the last king of Ebla Ishar-damu, to the king of Nagar are registered in two monthly accounts of textiles TM.75.G.1249+ and TM.75.G.1250+. In the second text TM.75.G.1250+, there is a long list of many precious objects and different types of textiles destined for the princess as dowry to bring to her new house. Among these textiles, there is no veil. 22 The beginning of the text TM.75.G.1250+ quotes the textiles given to Ultum-HU.HU, the son of the king of Nagar, who poured oil on the head of the Eblaite princess.
In conclusion, the veil is sometimes given to brides but not always, and it is not the most important ritual act during the Eblaite marriage ritual which is pouring oil on the head of the bride.

The Veil for the Queen in the Great Ritual
A great ritual for the Ebla royalty performed by the royal couple, 23 refers, at the beginning, to the marriage of the queen with the king of Ebla which took place possibly some time before. It was necessary to have a royal couple to perform this ritual. Because of the presence of the veil given to the queen during ceremonies in honour of some royal ancestors in the city of Binash, some scholars consider this to be a marriage ritual.
In my opinion, and also in the opinion of A.M.G. Capomacchia, historian of religions, who studied the texts with me, too many funerary elements are present in these rituals to be able to propose that we are dealing with a marriage ritual. Marriage and funerary rituals are both rites of passage but one is festive, while the other is sombre. The fact that the same objects and textiles are given to girls on their marriage and for funerary ceremonies is not proof that the two occasions are similar. In fact, it is obvious that the same objects are given to the girls in both cases not because they are similar but because the objects necessary for girls on both occasions are, of course, the same.
In both texts, the marriage of the king and queen is quoted at the very beginning of the texts. Then, after many ceremonies, and when they are already in the Mausoleum of Binash, a veil is placed on the face and hands of the queen seven times.
The word for veil is PAD; in rev. IX 15 is written gú-du-mu. gú-dumu is interpreted as a noun from Sem *ktm, "cover (with a veil)". This word is the Semitic writing of PAD(-TÚG) and corresponds to Akkadian kutummu, which was also used in Mari to indicate the veil of the bride.
The text ARET XI 1 is the oldest and contains more phonetic writings like all the oldest texts of Ebla.
23 For the last edition of the ritual, see ARET XI. For different opinions on the interpretation of the ritual, see Biga, Capomacchia 2012;Bonechi 2016 with previous bibliography. The ritual is not for a marriage; marriages were celebrated with music and a banquet that could continue for several days. Afterwards, there was no honeymoon trip! We normally think of the voyage de noces but this is a practice born in the Belle Epoque period. After the wedding a royal couple such as that of Ebla had to perform a ritual to take on their royal role and they were protected by the divine couple KUra and Barama. Of course, during the ritual they also performed some acts for the fertility of the queen.
In ARET XI 2 (82-84) the same ritual action is described, but the veil is quoted as PAD(-TÚG), with the use of the logogram. 24 Apparently the queen is veiled only at this point, after a trip of several days with the king and not when she left her father's house.
The significance of the veil here is probably not that of a veil for a bride. We are dealing with another ritual connected with the cult of ancestors, purification etc.
Some scholars have used the quotation of veil in this ritual as proof that we are dealing with a marriage ritual. 25 However, from all the texts quoting marriages it is evident that in the marriage at Ebla, the defining act was the pouring of oil on the head of the bride.
It should be noted that the two administrative texts related to the ritual from the monthly accounts of textile deliveries also describe the textiles received by the king and the queen but no veil given to the queen is mentioned. 26 The veil has been interpreted 27 as having great symbolic value during Eblaite marriage, but, in my opinion, this is not very evident from the texts.

The Veil among the Textiles Given to Women to Bring into the Tomb
In some texts in which the funerary gifts for women are registered, the veil is quoted among the textiles but sometimes not. The veil is never given as a funerary gift to men and this is the most important difference between gifts for men and women. In TM.75.G.2632 (king Ishar-damu, vizier Ibrium, month gi-ni) obv. IV 6-V 3: 1 zara-textile coloured red, 1 veil, 1 dururu-band... 2 brooches of silver weighing x sekels of silver with head of gold, 1 and half sekels of gold for 1 object-kùsal for Dati-tu queen of the reign of Lumnan, for her funerary service [i.e. for her tomb], Ishar delivered.
In the text TM.75.G.2334, written on the death of princess Daribdamu, there is a long list of the many funerary gifts she received. 24 In the text ARET XI 2 (115) of the ritual is written that the head of the god KUra is not veiled (nu PAD); in the text ARET XI 3 (24) is written that the heads of the gods KUra and Barama are not veiled (nu PAD-TÚG) (see Fronzaroli 2020).
It should be noted that the textiles given as funerary gifts are the same as the ones girls are given for their dowry 28 but in this case, the veil is not mentioned.
The veil is not included among the textiles given to six already dead women of the royal family (and possibly buried in the same tomb).
In the text TM.75.G.2337 + 4269, the death of a woman of the king is quoted. There is no veil among the textiles given to this woman.
Women never receive a veil for a purification ceremony after a death.

Iconographic Evidence
Iconographic evidence does not help very much because very few representations of women have been found in palace G of Ebla. A plaque, TM.03.G.1150, shows a seated woman wearing a long cloth and a big shawl. 29 Also a statuette, TM.83.G.400, shows a seated woman wearing a long cloth and a long shawl covering the head and most of the body. 30 L. Colonna d'Istria compared the representations of women in Ebla and Mari in the third millennium BC, concluding that they all had a "robe-manteau" covering the head and the shoulders; 31 women dressed in this way were involved in some ceremonies. He quotes the translation as the 'veil' of Pasquali. 'Robe-manteau' is the textile that Pasquali defines the "veil".
In the shell inlays of Mari of the third millennium BC, women always have their hair covered by different types of headdress, a polos crown or a turban, a piece of cloth intended to cover the hair. It is depicted as interlacing thin strips covering the entire area of the hair. 32 28 See Pasquali 2005. 29 See Nadali in this volume, fig. 3. 30 Matthiae 2008, 152-3. 31 Colonna d'Istria 2019 In the cylinder seals from Mari of the third millennium BC, women are represented with a long cloth and a shawl on their heads, also covering their shoulders. Sometimes under the shawl women have a polos crown. 33 There is no possibility to prove that all the married women of the Ebla court regularly used a veil to cover their head. The two small statues possibly representing the queen-mother Dusigu and the last queen Tabur-damu, do not have a veil. 34 Priestesses are not necessarily given the veil. Some lists of textiles given to daughters of kings of Ebla who went as priestesses to some sanctuaries of the kingdom of Ebla have already been published but the veil is not quoted. 35

5
The Veil in the Texts from Syria of the Second Millennium BC The veil was considered an important garment in the Syrian wedding ritual, especially in Mari of the second millennium BC.
In the Mari texts, the veils (plural) of the bride are quoted. The textile-mardatum was probably a veil made with an embroidered textile.
In ARM XXVI 10: 15 of the time of king Zimri-Lim: "we put the veils on the head of the young girl" in a ritual of marriage.
According to Durand, 36 the textile mardatum was also used to cover the head. In fact, in a letter, ARM V 76 (=LAPO 16 10: 3'-8') of the time of king Yasmah-Addu, textiles-mardatum have been requested but (veils) kutummum have been received. 37 In a list of textiles from Mari of the second millennium there is the word kutummum (veil). 38 According to Durand the veil kutummum was worn on the head as is evident from the marriage ritual and is a simple veil. Mardatum was a more sophisticated textile, embroidered.
In the Mari texts, the constitutive act of the marriage was placing the veil on the head of the young woman. In the case of the marriage of Šibtu, the daughter of the king of Aleppo, the veil was put on the 36 Durand 2009, 11, 55-6. 37 Durand 1988, 99-104. 38 Durand 2009Beaugeard 2010, 288. A veil was placed on the head of the bride also in the Old Assyrian period, according to the texts of Kültepe (Michel 1997).
Other Mari texts document that the veil was a typical garment worn by married women.
It is possible that, also in Babylon, married women were normally veiled. In the Gilgamesh epic, quoted by Durand, 39 is written: "my friend covered his face as a married woman".
In Emar of the middle Babylonian period, the ritual describing the installation of a high priestess of Baal gives an indication of her apparel during the ceremony. A red paršigu-scarf is tied on the head of the high priestess on the day of her installation. On the last day of the installation rite, the seventh day, when she leaves her father's house, she wears "a multicoloured scarf (íb-lá birmi) which covers her head (ukattamu) like a bride". 40 Abrahami and Lion, who recently studied the textiles given to the priestess, have seen an analogy with a wedding ceremony and consider that the scarf was also worn by women during the wedding ceremony. 41 But the scarf is not a veil.
In the dowry lists from the Middle Babylonian period, a veil is not quoted for the bride among the textiles and gender-marked garments. 42 In the texts from Ugarit, 43 despite a large number of terms regarding textiles and clothing, few garments, textiles or complements can be identified with any certainty as exclusively or preferentially used by women. According to W. Watson "no differentiation is made between clothes for women or men", 44 with a few possible exceptions such as psm 'veil'.
An incomplete ivory statuette (RS 9.283) from the "Résidence de la Reine-mère" shows a seated woman with a piece of fabric covering her hair. 45 In the Bible too, there are very few mentions of veiled women. A veil (tsai'if) on the head or on the face is attested in only two episodes of the Bible. One is Gen 24,65, the episode of Rebecca who puts a veil on her head when her future husband Isaac is introduced to her.
The other is Gen 38,1-26: Tamar, daughter-in-law of Judas, dresses herself as a prostitute and puts a veil on her face to deceive Judas, to have sexual relations with him and bear his child. 39 Durand 1988, 103 fn. 47. 40 Abrahami, Lion 2020 41 Abrahami, Lion 2020, 14.
43 See Matoian, Vita 2020, 47. 44 Watson 2018 In the Hebrew ritual of marriage there is the act of covering the bride with a veil. The veil in the Bible can characterise different types of women. 46

Conclusions
The veil is a textile of different types and colours destined for women, especially for brides. From the Ebla texts, it emerges that the veil was given to women among the textiles of the dowry, but not always.
Furthermore, married women in Syria did not always wear the veil. There are many more explicit mentions in the legal texts that have been dealt with by Mario Fales in this volume.