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Code of Hammurabi
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The Code of Hammurabi is a well­preserved Babylonian law
code of ancient Mesopotamia, dating back 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, and partial copies exist on a seven
and a half foot stone stele and various clay tablets. The code
consists of 282 laws, with scaled punishments, adjusting "an eye
for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" (lex talionis)[1] as graded
depending on social status, of slave versus free man.[2] Nearly
one­half of the code deals with matters of contract, establishing,
for example, the wages to be paid to an ox driver or a surgeon.
Other provisions set the terms of a transaction, establishing the
liability of a builder for a house that collapses, for example, 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 sexual
behavior. Only one provision appears to impose obligations on
an official; this provision establishes that a judge who reaches an
incorrect decision is to be fined and removed from the bench
permanently.[3] A few provisions address issues related to
military service.
Code of Hammurabi
Side view of the stele "fingertip"
Created
c 1750 BC
Author(s)
Hammurabi
The code was discovered by modern archaeologists in 1901, and
Purpose
Law code
its editio princeps translation published in 1902 by Jean­Vincent
Scheil. This nearly complete example of the code is carved into a
basalt stele in the shape of a huge index finger,[4] 2.25 m (7.4 ft) tall. The code is inscribed in the Akkadian
language, using cuneiform script carved into the stele. It is currently on display in the Louvre, with exact replicas in
the Oriental Institute at the University of 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 (Dutch:
Theologische Universiteit Kampen voor de Gereformeerde Kerken) in the Netherlands, the Pergamon Museum of
Berlin, and the National Museum of Iran in Tehran.
Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
History
Law
Other copies
Laws covered
See also
References
External links
History
Hammurabi ruled for nearly 42 years, from about 1792 to 1749 BC
according to the Middle chronology. In the preface to the law, 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 evil­doers; so that the
strong should not harm the weak; so that I should rule over the
black­headed people like Shamash, and enlighten the land, to
further the well­being of mankind."[5] On the stone slab are 44
columns and 28 paragraphs that contained 282 laws. Some of these
laws follow along the rules of 'an eye for an eye'.[6]
Code on clay tablets
Code on basalt stele
It had been taken as plunder by the Elamite king Shutruk­
Two versions of the Code at the Louvre
Nahhunte in the 12th century BC and was taken to Susa in Elam
(located in the present­day 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.[7]
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.[8]
Law
The Code of Hammurabi was one of several sets of laws in the ancient Near East and also one of the first forms of
law.[9] The code of laws was arranged in orderly groups, so that all who read the laws would know what was
required of them.[10] Earlier collections of laws include the Code of Ur­Nammu, king of Ur (circa 2050 BC), the
Laws of Eshnunna (circa 1930 BC) and the codex of Lipit­Ishtar of Isin (circa 1870 BC), while later ones include
the Hittite laws, the Assyrian laws, and Mosaic Law.[11] These codes come from similar cultures in a relatively
small geographical area, and they have passages which resemble each other.[12]
The Code of Hammurabi is the longest surviving text from the Old
Babylonian period.[13] The code has been seen as an early example of a
fundamental law, regulating a government — i.e., a primitive
constitution.[14][15] 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.[16] 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.[17]
The Code issues justice following the three classes of Babylonian society:
property owners, freed men, and slaves. 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.[18]
Figures at top of stele "fingernail"
above Hammurabi's code of laws
Other copies
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 (it
is currently dated to the early 18th century BC).[19] Likewise, the Museum
of the Ancient Orient, part of the Istanbul Archaeology Museums, also has a
"Code of Hammurabi" clay tablet, dated to 1750 BC, in (Room 5, Inv # Ni
2358).[20][21]
In July, 2010, archaeologists reported that a fragmentary Akkadian
cuneiform tablet was discovered at Tel Hazor, Israel, containing a circa­
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.[22]
Hammurabi stele at American
Museum of Natural History, New
York, 2012
Laws covered
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.)"[23]
Trade
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."[23]
Slavery
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."[23]
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."[23]
Theft
Ex. Law #22: "If any one is committing a robbery and is caught, then he
shall be put to death."[23]
Trade
Ex. Law #104: "If a merchant give an agent corn, wool, oil, or any other
goods to transport, the agent shall give a receipt for the amount, and
A version of the code at the Istanbul
Archaeological Museums
External video
compensate the merchant therefor. Then he shall obtain a receipt from
the merchant for the money that he gives the merchant."[23]
Liability
Ex. Law #53: "If any one be too lazy to keep his dam in proper
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 corn which he has caused to
be ruined."[23]
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."[23]
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 one­half his price."[23]
Hammurabi had many other punishments, as well. If a son strikes his father,
his hands shall be hewn off. Translations vary.[24][25]
Law Code Stele of King
Hammurabi, 1792­1750 B.C. (http
s://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w5
NGOHbgTw), Smarthistory
See also
Babylonian law
Code of the Assura
Code of Ur­Nammu – the oldest known tablet containing a law code surviving today, it predates the Code of
Hammurabi by some 300 years
Cuneiform Law
Hippocratic Oath
List of ancient legal codes
Quid pro quo
Urukagina – Sumerian king and creator of what is sometimes cited as the first example of a legal code in
recorded history
References
1. Prince, J. Dyneley (July 1904). "Review: The Code of
Hammurabi". The American Journal of Theology. The
University of Chicago Press. 8 (3): 601–609.
JSTOR 3153895.
2. Gabriele Bartz, Eberhard König, (Arts and
Architecture), Könemann, Köln, (2005), ISBN 3­8331­
1943­8. The laws were based with scaled punishments,
adjusting "an eye for an eye" depending on social
status.
3. Code of Hammurabi (http://www.commonlaw.com/Ha
mmurabi.html) at commonlaw.com Archived (https://w
eb.archive.org/web/20070921205329/http://www.comm
onlaw.com/Hammurabi.html) 21 September 2007 at the
Wayback Machine.
4. Iconographic Evidence for Some Mesopotamian Cult
Statues, Dominique Collon, Die Welt der Götterbilder,
Edited by Groneberg, Brigitte; , Spieckermann,
Hermann; , and Weiershäuser, Frauke, Berlin, New
York (Walter de Gruyter) 2007 Pages 57–84
5. Edited by Richard Hooker; Translated by L.W King
(1996). "Mesopotamia: The Code of Hammurabi".
Washington State University. Archived from the
original on 9 September 2007. Retrieved 14 September
2007.
6. "Hammurabi's Code" [1] (http://library.thinkquest.org/2
0176/hammurabis_code.htm), Think Quest, retrieved
on 2 Nov 2011.
7. Marc Van De Mieroop: A History of the Ancient Near
East, second edition p.296
8. Cultures in Contact: From Mesopotamia to the
Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2013. Retrieved
November 1, 2015.
9. L. W. King (2005). "The Code of Hammurabi:
Translated by L. W. King". Yale University. Retrieved
14 September 2007.
10. "The Code of Hammurabi: Introduction," [2] (http://ww
w.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/hamcode.asp), Ancient
History Sourcebook, March 1998, retrieved on 2
November 2011.
11. Barton, G.A: Archaeology and the Bible. University of
Michigan Library, 2009, (originally published in 1916
by American Sunday­School Union) p.406.
12. Barton 2009, p.406. Barton, a scientist of Semitic
languages at the University of Pennsylvania from 1922
to 1931, stated that while there are similarities between
the Mosaic Law and the Code of Hammurabi, a study
of the entirety of both laws "convinces the student that
the laws of the Old Testament are in no essential way
dependent upon the Babylonian laws." He states that
"such resemblances" arose from "a similarity of
antecedents and of general intellectual outlook"
between the two cultures, but that "the striking
differences show that there was no direct borrowing."
13. "The Code of Hammurabi," [3] (http://www.historyguid
e.org/ancient/hammurabi.html), The History Guide, 3
August 2009, Retrieved on 2 November 2011.
14. What is a Constitution? William David Thomas, Gareth
Stevens (2008) p. 8
15. Flach, Jacques. Le Code de Hammourabi et la
constitution originaire de la propriete dans l'ancienne
Chaldee. (Revue historique. Paris, 1907. 8. v. 94, p.
272­289.
16. Victimology: Theories and Applications, Ann Wolbert
Burgess, Albert R. Roberts, Cheryl Regehr,Jones &
Bartlett Learning, 2009, p. 103
17. For this alternative interpretation see Jean Bottéro, "The
'Code' of Hammurabi" in Mesopotamia: Writing,
Reasoning and the Gods (University of Chicago, 1992),
pp. 156–184.
18. "What was Babylon? ­ History Extra". History Extra.
19. Fant, Clyde E. and Mitchell G. Reddish (2008), Lost
Treasures of the Bible: Understanding the Bible
Through Archaeological Artifacts in World Museums (h
ttps://books.google.com/books?id=Dj6zVQJz7zYC&pg
=PA62&lpg=PA62&dq=%22Code+of+Hammurabi%22
+AND+2358&source=bl&ots=h­WEMEm_S7&sig=otr
uVc43aRR7ge­2v­78tcMQih8&hl=en&ei=tU1iSrvWN
dmOtgfjr9EC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnu
m=3), Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., pg 62.
20. Freely, John, Blue Guide Istanbul (5th ed., 2000),
London: A&C Black, New York: WW Norton, pg 121.
("The most historic of the inscriptions here [i.e., Room
5, Museum of the Ancient Orient, Istanbul] is the
famous Code of Hammurabi (#Ni 2358) dated 1750
BC, the world's oldest recorded set of laws.")
21. Museum of the Ancient Orient website (http://english.is
tanbul.gov.tr/Default.aspx?pid=13150) ("This museum
contains a rich collection of ancient ... archaeological
finds, including ... seals from Nippur and a copy of the
Code of Hammurabi.")
22. "Code of Hammurabi Tablet Found ­ Inside Israel ­
News ­ Arutz Sheva". Arutz Sheva.
23. "The Code of Hammurabi". Internet Sacred Text
Archive. Evinity Publishing INC. 2011. Retrieved
November 17, 2013.
24. Translated by L. W. King, Hammurabi's Code of Laws,
Hammurabi's Code of Laws (http://eawc.evansville.edu/
anthology/hammurabi.htm) Archived (https://web.archi
ve.org/web/20080509192326/http://eawc.evansville.ed
u/anthology/hammurabi.htm) 9 May 2008 at the
Wayback Machine.
25. Translated by L. W. King, Hammurabi's Code of Laws,
The Code of Hammurabi King of Babylon by Robert
Francis Harper (PDF)
Editio princeps: Scheil, Jean­Vincent (1902). "Code des Lois de Hammurabi". Memoires de la delegation en
Perse. 4 (Textes Elamites­Semitiques).
Driver, G.R.; J.C. Miles (2007). The Babylonian Laws. Eugene: Wipf and Stock. ISBN 1­55635­229­8.
Roth, Martha T. (1997). Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Atlanta: Scholars Press.
ISBN 0­7885­0378­2.
Bryant, Tamera (2005). The Life & Times of Hammurabi. Bear: Mitchell Lane Publishers. ISBN 978­1­
58415­338­2.
Mieroop, Marc (2004). King Hammurabi of Babylon: a Biography. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers.
ISBN 978­1­4051­2660­1.
Hammurabi, King; C. H. W. Johns (Translator) (2000). The Oldest Code of Laws in the World. City:
Lawbook Exchange Ltd. ISBN 978­1­58477­061­9.
Falkenstein, A. (1956–57). Die neusumerischen Gerichtsurkunden I–III. München.
Elsen­Novák, G./Novák, M.: Der 'König der Gerechtigkeit'. Zur Ikonologie und Teleologie des 'Codex'
Hammurapi. In: Baghdader Mitteilungen 37 (2006), pp. 131–156.
Julius Oppert and Joachim Menant (1877). Documents juridiques de l'Assyrie et de la Chaldee. París.
Thomas, D. Winton, ed. (1958). Documents from Old Testament Times. London and New York.
Beck, Roger B.; Linda Black, Larry S. Krieger, Phillip C. Naylor, Dahia Ibo Shabaka, (1999). World History:
Patterns of Interaction. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell. ISBN 0­395­87274­X.
Bonhomme, Brian, and Cathleen Boivin. "Code of Hammurabi." Milestone Documents in World
History. Exploring the Primary Sources That Shaped the World: 2350 BCE ­ 1058 CE. Vol. 1. Dallas, TX: Schlager
Group, 2010. 23­31.
Febbraro, Flavio, and Burkhard Schwetje. How to Read World History in Art. New York:
Abrams, 2010. Print.
External links
The Code of Hammurabi Translated by L. W. King (http://www.gener
al­intelligence.com/library/hr.pdf).
Law Code of Hammurabi, king of Babylon | Musée du Louvre (http://
www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre­notices/law­code­hammurabi­king­babylon)
The Code of Hammurabi: A King with Rules (http://fancyfrindle.co
m/the­code­of­hammurabi­a­king­with­rules/)
Complete 1904 English translation of the Code of Hammurabi (http://
oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.p
hp%3Ftitle=1276&Itemid=27)
Hammurabi's Code (http://cliojournal.wikispaces.com/Hammurabi%2
7s+Code), Blaise Joseph, Clio History Journal, 2009.
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