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Hammurabi: Law Code
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The Code of Hammurabi is the longest surviving text from the Old Babylonian period. Almost completely preserved, the code is far more significant in legal history than any of its forerunners, such as that of Ur-Nammu. 282 laws, carved in forty-nine columns on a basalt stele, address a variety of topics in civil, criminal, and commercial law. Like other Near Eastern codes. Hammurabi's does not attempt to cover all possible legal situations. In its epilogue, Hammurabi describes the code as "laws of Justice" intended to clarify the rights of any "oppressed man."
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The Code of Hammurabi is one of the earliest known examples of human laws being defined and written down in an orderly way. Little is known about Hammurabi himself; he ruled Babylon nearly four millennia ago, from roughly 1792-1750 B.C. The code has 282 entries covering all sorts of civil interactions, from inheritance to theft to slave ownership. Some of the laws are general (anyone caught committing a robbery shall be put to death) and others quite specific ("If any one hire an ox-driver, he shall pay him six gur of corn per year"). The code's best-known dictum is "If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out" -- commonly quoted as "An eye for an eye."
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In the hypothetical speech below, Hammurabi invokes some of the Babylonian gods (Anu Bel, Shamash), as he does in his Code. The Babylonian god Marduk was the chief god of the city of Babylonia. As a result of Hammurabi's expansion of the empire, Marduk ... began to be considered the chief god of the entire traditional Mesopotamian pantheon. Religion was central to everyday life in Babylonia. Large temples were central features in every city and wealthy homes likely included their own private chapels.
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The Code of Hammurabi is significant because its creation allowed men, women, slaves, and all others to read and understand the laws that governed their lives in Babylon. It is unique in that laws of other civilizations were not written down, and ... could be manipulated to suite the rulers that dictated them. The Code is particularly just for its time. Although it follows the practice of "an eye for an eye", it does not allow for vigilante justice, but rather demands a trial by judges. It also glorifies acts of peace and justice done during Hammurabi’s rule. It symbolizes not only the emergence of justice in the minds of men, but also man’s rise above ignorance and barbarism toward the peaceful and just societies still pursued today.
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The Code of Hammurabi was discovered in the Middle East where the country of Iran is today. The discovery was made in 1901. It had been transported there from its original place in the center of the city of Babylon. The Elamites stole the code and took it back to their homeland in the 12th Century B.C. Archeologists would find the code and other relics that were significant to the Babylonian Empire both at this site and at the present day site of Babylon.
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Although he was a successful military leader and administrator, Hammurabi is primarily remembered for his codification of the laws governing Babylonian life, known as the Code of Hammurabi. Archaeologists discovered the text of this code engraved upon a stone monument in the city of Susa (now Shush) in Iran in 1902.
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