Tuesday, January 1, 2013

The Code of Hammurabi



My picture of the stele from the Chicago Oriental Institute of the Code of Hammurabi
 
 
The code of Hammurabi was a set of Babylonian laws dating back to 1772 BC.  The sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi, enacted the code.  It consists of  over 282 laws.  According to wikipedia:
 
Hammurabi ruled for nearly 43 years, ca. 1792 to 1750 BC according to the Middle chronology. In the preface to the law code, he states, "Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared Marduk, the chief god of Babylon (The Human Record, Andrea & Overfield 2005), to bring about the rule in the land."[5] On the stone slab there are 44 columns and 28 paragraphs that contained over 282 laws.[6]
 
The Code of Hammurabi is the longest surviving text from the Old Babylonian period.[11] The code has been seen as an early example of a fundamental law regulating a government — i.e., a primitive form of what is now known as a constitution.[12][13] 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.[14] The occasional nature of many provisions suggests that the Code may be better read as a codification of supplementary judicial decisions of the king. Rather than being a modern legal code or constitution, it may have as its purpose the self-glorification of Hammurabi by memorializing his wisdom and justice. Its copying in subsequent generations indicates that it was used as a model of legal and judicial reasoning.


One nearly complete example of the Code survives today, on a diorite stele in the shape of a huge index finger,[4] 2.25-metre (7.4 ft) tall (see images at right). 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 in the University of Chicago, 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

So I have been lucky enough to see a replica of the stele.  Here is a link to the actual code in the form of a pdf file:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_code_of_Hammurabi.pdf


I would say that the Code of Hammurabi appears to be the basis of ancient religious law and possibly the Constitution of the United States along with other sources.   The Code of Ur-Nammu predates the Code of Hammurabi by 300 years and it gives a glimpse of what the law was like in ancient Sumer.



By Rita Jean Moran (www.thelibrarykids.com)


Links:
 
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Ur-Nammu

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urukagina

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ancient_legal_codes



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