As is clear from Professor Bar-Ilan’s article in this issue (p. 24), women served as the mekonnenot, the traditional public mourners and lamenters in biblical times, and this continued in the rabbinic period.
The Mishna in various places starts from the assumption that women are the mekonnenot. In Ketubot (4:4), Rabbi Judah is cited as stating that the funeral of even the poorest person should include at least two flutes and a wailing woman. In Mo’ed Katan, the Mishna discusses the limitations placed on the female mourners during Hol Hamo’ed and other days in the calendar.
The women may sing dirges during Hol Ham’oed but may not clap their hands. R. Ishmael says: They that are near to the bier may clap their hands. On Rosh Hodesh, Hanukah and Purim they may sing lamentations and clap their hands; but during none of these times may they wail. After the corpse has been buried they may not sing lamentations or clap their hands. What is a lamentation? When all sing together. And a wailing? When one begins by herself and all respond after her.
Mo’ed Katan 3.8-9.
The gemara of the same tractate includes a list of eight short enigmatic laments in Aramaic; one is anonymous but the other seven are attributed to the women of Shoken Zeb in Babylonia (Mo’ed Katan 28b).
Note: For further material on this topic, see Meir Bar-Ilan, Chapter 3, The Keening Woman in Some Jewish Women in Antiquity, Atlanta, Georgia. Scholars Press, 1998.