The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian code of law of ancient Mesopotamia, dated to about 1754 BC. It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. A partial copy exists on a 2. 25-metre-tall stone stele.
About Code of Hammurabi in brief
The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian code of law of ancient Mesopotamia, dated to about 1754 BC. It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. A partial copy exists on a 2. 25-metre-tall stone stele. It consists of 282 laws, with scaled punishments, adjusting \”an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth\” as graded based on social stratification depending on social status and gender, of slave versus free, man versus woman. The code was discovered by modern archaeologists in 1901, and its editio princeps translation published in 1902 by Jean-Vincent Scheil. 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. It was taken as plunder by the Elamite king Shutruk-Nahhunte in the 12th century BC and was taken to Susa in Elam, where it was no longer available to the Babylonian people.
The Code 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, and the Prewitt-Allen Archaeological Museum at Corban University, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, and American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The laws were arranged in 44 columns and 28 paragraphs; some follow along the rules of ‘an eye For An Eye’ The code is inscribed in the Akkadian language, using cuneiform script carved into the stele, and was imported into Sumeria from Magan – today the area covered by the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
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This page is based on the article Code of Hammurabi published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
