| Code of Hammurabi | |
|---|---|
A side view of the stele "fingertip" at the Louvre Museum
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| Created | c. 1754 BC |
| Author(s) | Hammurabi |
The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian code of law of ancient Mesopotamia, dated to about 1754 BC (Middle Chronology). It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. The sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi, enacted the code. A partial copy exists on a 2.25-metre-tall (7.5 ft) stone stele. It consists of 282 laws, with scaled punishments, adjusting "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" (lex talionis) as graded based on social stratification depending on social status and gender, of slave versus free, man versus woman.
Nearly half of the code deals with matters of contract, establishing the wages to be paid to an ox driver or a surgeon for example. Other provisions set the terms of a transaction, the liability of a builder for a house that collapses, or property that is damaged while left in the care of another. A third of the code addresses issues concerning household and family relationships such as inheritance, divorce, paternity, and reproductive behavior. Only one provision appears to impose obligations on a government official; this provision establishes that a judge who alters his decision after it is written down is to be fined and removed from the bench permanently. A few provisions address issues related to military service.
The code was discovered by modern archaeologists in 1901, and its editio princeps translation published in 1902 by Jean-Vincent Scheil. This nearly complete example of the code is carved into a diorite stele in the shape of a huge index finger, 2.25 m (7.4 ft) tall. The code is inscribed in the Akkadian language, using cuneiform script carved into the stele. The material was imported into Sumeria from Magan - today the area covered by the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
It is currently on display in the Louvre, with replicas in numerous institutions, including the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in Chicago, the Clendening History of Medicine Library & Museum at the University of Kansas Medical Center, the library of the Theological University of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, the Pergamon Museum of Berlin, the Arts Faculty of the University of Leuven in Belgium, the National Museum of Iran in Tehran, the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, the University Museum at the University of Pennsylvania, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Russia, the Prewitt-Allen Archaeological Museum at Corban University, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, and Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC.
History
The code on clay tablets
The code on a diorite stele
Hammurabi ruled from 1792 to 1750 BC (according to the middle chronology). At the head of the stone slab is Hammurabi receiving the law from Shamash, and in the preface, he states, "Anu and Bel
called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to
bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked
and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak; so
that I should rule over the black-headed people like Shamash, and enlighten the land, to further the well-being of mankind." The laws were arranged in 44 columns and 28 paragraphs; some follow along the rules of "an eye for an eye".
It was taken as plunder by the Elamite king Shutruk-Nahhunte in the 12th century BC and was taken to Susa in Elam (located in the present-day Khuzestan Province of Iran), where it was no longer available to the Babylonian people. However, when Cyrus the Great brought both Babylon and Susa under the rule of his Persian Empire and placed copies of the document in the Library of Sippar, the text became available for all the peoples of the vast Persian Empire to view.
In 1901, Egyptologist Gustave Jéquier, a member of an expedition headed by Jacques de Morgan, found the stele containing the Code of Hammurabi during archaeological excavations at the ancient site of Susa in Khuzestan.
The stele unearthed in 1901 had many laws scraped off by
Shutruk-Naknunte. Early estimates pegged the number of missing laws at
34, however the exact number is still not determined and only 30 have
been discovered so far. The common belief is that the code contained 282
laws in total.
Laws of Hammurabi's Code
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Detail of paragraph 165.
The Code of Hammurabi was one of the only sets of laws in the ancient Near East and also one of the first forms of law. The code of laws was arranged in orderly groups, so that all who read the laws would know what was required of them. Earlier collections of laws include the Code of Ur-Nammu, king of Ur (c. 2050 BC), the Laws of Eshnunna (c. 1930 BC) and the codex of Lipit-Ishtar of Isin (c. 1870 BC), while later ones include the Hittite laws, the Assyrian laws, and Mosaic Law.
These codes come from similar cultures in a relatively small
geographical area, and they have passages that resemble each other.
Figures at the top of the stele "fingernail", above Hammurabi's code of laws.
The Code of Hammurabi is the longest surviving text from the Old Babylonian period. The code has been seen as an early example of a fundamental law, regulating a government – i.e., a primitive constitution. The code is also one of the earliest examples of the idea of presumption of innocence, and it also suggests that both the accused and accuser have the opportunity to provide evidence.
The occasional nature of many provisions suggests that the code may be
better understood as a codification of Hammurabi's supplementary
judicial decisions, and that, by memorializing his wisdom and justice,
its purpose may have been the self-glorification of Hammurabi rather
than a modern legal code or constitution. However, its copying in
subsequent generations indicates that it was used as a model of legal
and judicial reasoning.
While the Code of Hammurabi was trying to achieve equality,
biases still existed against those categorized in the lower end of the
social spectrum and some of the punishments and justice could be
gruesome. The magnitude of criminal penalties often was based on the
identity and gender of both the person committing the crime and the
victim. The Code issues justice following the three classes of
Babylonian society: property owners, freed men, and slaves.
Punishments for someone assaulting someone from a lower class
were far lighter than if they had assaulted someone of equal or higher
status.
For example, if a doctor killed a rich patient, he would have his hands
cut off, but if he killed a slave, only financial restitution was
required.
Women could also receive punishments that their male counterparts would
not, as men were permitted to have affairs with their servants and
slaves, whereas married women would be harshly punished for committing adultery.
Other copies
The Hammurabi stele at the American Museum of Natural History, New York.
A version of the code at the Istanbul Archaeological Museums.
Various copies of portions of the Code of Hammurabi have been found
on baked clay tablets, some possibly older than the celebrated basalt
stele now in the Louvre. The Prologue of the Code of Hammurabi (the
first 305 inscribed squares on the stele) is on such a tablet, also at
the Louvre (Inv #AO 10237). Some gaps in the list of benefits bestowed
on cities recently annexed by Hammurabi may imply that it is older than
the famous stele (currently dated to the early 18th century BC). Likewise, the Museum of the Ancient Orient, part of the Istanbul Archaeology Museums, also has a "Code of Hammurabi" clay tablet, dated to 1790 BC (in Room 5, Inv # Ni 2358).
In July 2010, archaeologists reported that a fragmentary Akkadian cuneiform tablet was discovered at Tel Hazor, Israel, containing a c. 1700
BC text that was said to be partly parallel to portions of the
Hammurabi code. The Hazor law code fragments are currently being
prepared for publication by a team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Laws covered
Today, approximately 275 laws from Hammurabi’s Code are known. Each
law is written in two parts: A specific situation or case is outlined,
then a corresponding decision is given.
One of the best known laws from Hammurabi's code was:
Ex. Law #196: "If a man destroy the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye. If one break a man's bone, they shall break his bone. If one destroy the eye of a freeman or break the bone of a freeman he shall pay one gold mina. If one destroy the eye of a man's slave or break a bone of a man's slave he shall pay one-half his price."
Hammurabi had many other punishments, as well. If a son strikes his father, his hands shall be hewn off. Translations vary.
The laws covered such subjects as:
- Slander
- Ex. Law #127: "If any one 'point the finger' at a sister of a god or the wife of any one, and can not prove it, this man shall be taken before the judges and his brow shall be marked (by cutting the skin, or perhaps hair)."
- Fraud
- Ex. Law #265: "If a herdsman, to whose care cattle or sheep have been entrusted, be guilty of fraud and make false returns of the natural increase, or sell them for money, then shall he be convicted and pay the owner ten times the loss."
- Slavery and status of slaves as property
- Ex. Law #15: "If any one take a male or female slave of the court, or a male or female slave of a freed man, outside the city gates, he shall be put to death."
- The duties of workers
- Ex. Law #42: "If any one take over a field to till it, and obtain no harvest therefrom, it must be proved that he did no work on the field, and he must deliver grain, just as his neighbor raised, to the owner of the field."
- Theft
- Ex. Law #22: "If any one is committing a robbery and is caught, then he shall be put to death."
- Trade
- Ex. Law #104: "If a merchant give an agent grain, wool, oil, or any other goods to transport, the agent shall give a receipt for the amount, and compensate the merchant therefore, he shall obtain a receipt from the merchant for the money that he gives the merchant."
- Liability
- Ex. Law #53: "If any one be too apathetic to keep his dam in primly condition, and does not so keep it; if then the dam break and all the fields be flooded, then shall he in whose dam the break occurred be sold for money, and the money shall replace the crops which he has caused to be ruined."
- Divorce
- Ex. Law #142: "If a woman quarrel with her husband, and say: "You are not congenial to me," the reasons for her prejudice must be presented. If she is guiltless, and there is no fault on her part, but he leaves and neglects her, then no guilt attaches to this woman, she shall take her dowry and go back to her father's house."
- Adultery
- Ex. Law #129: "If the wife of a man has been caught lying with another man, they shall bind them and throw them into the waters. If the owner of the wife would save his wife then in turn the king could save his servant."
- Perjury
- Ex. Law #3: "If a man has borne false witness in a trial, or has not established the statement that he has made, if that case be a capital trial, that man shall be put to death."
