Adoption in Ancient Assyria and Babylonia

With the current interest in the history of child placement, I started surfing the internet and stumbled upon this article from the Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, which mentions adoption dating back to at least the "first half of the second millennium B.C". Here is the introduction of the article. To read the entire article click on the title.

Adoption in Ancient Assyria and Babylonia

Dr. Robert Paulissian

The adoption of children has been practiced throughout the history of mankind with its legal, social, and ethical implications. Presently the number of illegitimate births is skyrocketing in Western societies, and complications associated with adopting and raising these abandoned children has made adoption a social problem in modern society.

Our ancestors in ancient Mesopotamia had the same problem of maintaining these abandoned and orphaned children, though for different reasons than illegitimacy. Poverty, continuous warfare, famine, and disease were the main causes of abandonment and orphanage of infants and children. The ancient Mesopotamians wrote laws and set social customs and traditions to protect the rights and interest of both the adopters and adoptees alike. The adoption agreement was documented and confirmed by witnesses and sealed on tablets.

To a great extent, Assyrians and Babylonians were motivated to adopt for reasons similar to those existing today. Most typically, adoption was intended to provide an heir to a childless couple who had lost the hope of producing their own children. Even though a marriage that failed to produce a male heir could be legally dissolved or a second wife could be taken for the purpose of bearing a son as an heir, adoption of a stranger’s child was a common practice.

Adoption was not inspired solely by the desire to obtain a male heir who would preserve the family name. Another common motivation was the desire of the adoptive parents to have a son who would support them in their old age and perform the religious rites required upon their death. In other instances, a craftsman might adopt a male heir for apprenticeship to assure the continuity of the family business.

Adoption of children was also common among the eunuchs of the royal palace and by the females dedicated to religious celibacy. They also looked for assurances of support in their old age. It was not an unusual practice to adopt a loyal slave to maintain the continuity of care and support of the adopter into old age. Children born to a free man and his slave wife were commonly adopted and legitimized by the father to be legally considered as heirs.

As we shall see below, adoption was not limited to males (as son, son-inlaw and brother); females were also subject to adoption (as daughter, daughterin- law and sister). Aside from the real adoption, there was also a fictitious form used principally for the sale and transfer of real estate outside of the family. While the adopted child acquired inheritance rights, it was not assured that these rights would equal those guaranteed to a natural child. Moreover, the adoptive relationship was revocable by either side and subject to predetermined penalties. Because of possible abrogation, natural parents or guardians maintained their interest in the child and retained limited rights of reclaiming him. Typically, the issue of inheritance from the adoptive parents and the nature of the rights retained by the natural parents were addressed in the adoption contract.