Laws and history of Code of Hammurabi

Ancient Mesopotamia:Laws and history of Code of Hammurabi

learn about Laws and history of the Code of Hammurabi. One of the first written records of a code of law by the Babylonians.

Ruler Hammurabi was the first great king of Babylon. He founded the first Babylonian Empire and subjugated all of Mesopotamia. The Code of Hammurabi, which is still in use today, was also created by Hammurabi.

Code of Hammurabi history

The Hammurabi Code was inscribed in stone and on clay tablets. One of the world’s earliest recorded codes of law is this one. The “diorite stele” is one of the best surviving instances of the code.

Diorite Stele

The diorite stele is a sizable rock with the appearance of a huge finger. It is two feet broad and roughly seven feet tall. About 4000 lines of text, describing 282 separate statutes, make up this document. An image of King Hammurabi receiving the rules from the Babylonian sun god Shamash is etched onto the top, or “fingertip,” of the stele.

Laws of Code of Hammurabi

The real law was broken down into groups. The laws that dealt with one particular issue, such as slavery, were frequently bundled together. This would have made it easier for people to locate and read the laws that applied to them specifically. Some of the key sections of the code are listed below :

• Prologue
• Legal Procedures
• Household laws
• Slavery
• Trade and business
• Religion
• Epilogue

The Code was introduced in the prologue. The prologue explains how Hammurabi received the laws from the god Shamash.

An example from the prologue is as follows:

“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 …. and enlighten the land, to further the well-being of mankind”.

Hammurabi reiterates his wish for justice for all in the epilogue, saying : 

“Let the oppressed man come and stand before my image as king of righteousness. Let him understand my words and his case, so he will understand what is just and his heart will be glad.”

Examples of the Laws

Numerous rules specify the exact amount that an employee should be paid. One legislation mandates, for instance, that sailors receive six grams of grain in wages per year.

Some laws had heavy penalties and were quite strict:

• A son’s hands will be amputated if he strikes his father.
• If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.
• Any guy who attacks a person of higher rank will be subject to sixty ox-whip strikes.
• If a builder builds a house for someone and that house collapses killing them, then the builder shall be put to death.

The importance of the Code of Hammurabi

Archaeologists can learn a lot about the lives of the Babylonians from the code itself. Additionally, it includes several significant concepts like the need for witnesses to offer proof of a crime, the notion of innocence until proven guilty, and support for the vulnerable.

Facts about the Code of Hammurabi

• Shamash, the Babylonian god of law, justice, and salvation, is depicted at the summit of the diorite stele.
• The diorite stele is so named because it is built of the diorite rock type, a sort of dark rock.
• Archaeologists first discovered the diorite stele in the historic city of Susa. Today, it can be located in Paris, France’s Louvre Museum.
• One of the earliest and most extensively deciphered documents is the Code of Hammurabi.
• The Akkadian language and cuneiform script were used to write the code.

Read also : Religions and gods of Mesopotamia