How the Historical Code of Hammurabi Reveals a Society Each Comparable and Alien to Ours

Great rulers throughout history have erected monuments to themselves and their achievements that would outlast their short lives. From mighty pyramids to monolithic statues, the goal was to make a lasting impression on future generations. Some rulers wanted to pass their power on, others wanted to join the gods. For Hammurabi, king of Babylon, his inheritance was the law.

The Code of Hammurabi is inscribed on a stone (or stele) made of black basalt that is more than three meters high. Cuneiform in Akkadian language is used to write laws about criminal behavior, family interactions, economic transactions, and more. Penalties for any violation accompany the laws, which range from fines to death.

Hammurabi’s laws reflect some of our legal philosophies today, though filtered through the lens of a society that often looked very different from ours. Slavery was legal and women and children were believed to be subject to adult men.

The aim of the stele was varied: to lay down the laws of the country clearly for the citizens, but also to establish Hammurabi as a legislator and judge even after his death. Appropriately, the laws are accompanied by words and images that illustrate the divine origin of his kingship. On the top there is a bas-relief in which Hammurabi receives the blessings of the gods, below which are the laws themselves, as well as a prologue and an epilogue in which the achievements of the king and the divine right to rule are listed.

The collection of 282 laws is now in the Louvre in Paris, the dictation of which has been kept for almost four thousand years. The stele itself was discovered by French archaeologists in 1901 and is one of the oldest examples of scripts of significant length ever found. For archaeologists today, the collection of laws is a treasure trove, revealing not only the existence of an ancient legal system, but examples of labor relations, family life, social organization, and more.

A code set in stone

The massive stone and its laws were placed in a public temple, either in Babylon or in the ancient city of Sippar, both in what is now Iraq, just before the end of the king’s reign in the 18th century BC. The prominent placement meant that the laws were being clearly observed, and the epilogue advises anyone who has a legal battle to bring it to the stele for themselves and watch their case under his watchful eye:

“Let the oppressed who have a legal battle come and stand before this my image as the king of justice; Let him read the inscription and understand my precious words: the inscription will explain his case to him; he will find out what is righteous and his heart will be glad. “

The laws themselves are among the earliest examples of writing of any length to be discovered, and have been copied by scribes as writing exercises for over a thousand years. This meant that the laws themselves were widely circulated and read, and would affect legal thinking for millennia. This does not necessarily mean that Hammurabi was the author of all or even most of the laws he made. Other written examples of ancient law, such as the Sumerian Code of Ur-Nammu and the Laws of Eshnunna, predate the Code of Hammurabi several hundred years ago and contain many similarities. However, neither is that comprehensive.

Hammurabi’s laws cover much of the field, and scholars believe that they likely came from real-world cases presided over by the king or his judges. Examples include laws regulating crimes such as theft, murder, and adultery, and family interactions such as marriage, divorce, and inheritance. There are laws that set workers’ wages and compensate for fire and other damage. Some of the laws look familiar to us today, while others feel strange. For example, Law 135 sets out what should happen when a husband is taken as a prisoner of war and his wife leaves his home. (It’s okay if there’s no food.)

However, there is still some debate about whether the laws should be binding or simply set as a precedent for legal cases. We also have little evidence of how closely the laws were obeyed in Hammurabi’s time. However, scholars agree that Mesopotamia had a formalized judicial system that would necessarily depend on such laws.

Crime and Punishment

In addition to the laws, the Hammurabi Code also provides penalties for violations. Many feel harsh for us today: death is a common punishment, be it for murder, robbery, or failing to pay a mercenary. In some special cases the method of death is even given. Incest has been punished with ardent, adulterous murder by impaling. Cutting off hands was another popular punishment, for example when a son beat his father or a field hand stole the harvest they were tending. These punishments also include what is perhaps the best-known of Hammurabi’s laws: the infamous dictation “an eye for an eye”.

However, such justice has not always been the case. The penalties vary considerably depending on the status of the criminal and the victim. For example, if a doctor accidentally kills a free man, the doctor’s hands are cut off. When a doctor kills a slave, all he has to do is replace the slave. If a free-born man beats someone of equal rank, he must pay a fine in gold. But when a slave hits a free-born man, the slave’s ear must be cut off.

Women also dealt with more restrictive laws. If a woman neglects and leaves her husband, she may be thrown into the water. If a husband neglected his wife, his only punishment was for her to leave him. Men were also allowed to have another wife if their first wife did not bear them (although the law required that he must continue to look after them). However, there were some protections for women. For example, if a woman fell ill, the husband was forbidden to leave her. and when a man divorced his wife, in some cases she had rights to part of his property.

Other laws established fair wages and conditions for doing business in ancient Mesopotamia. The prices for building houses, renting farm animals, hiring workers, building boats and more are clearly set. The penalties for bad work are detailed too – should a house fall and kill its owner, the builder would be killed too. Or should a boat run out, the shipbuilder has to repair it at his own expense.

Hammurabi’s long shadow

The influence of the Code of Hammurabi extends beyond Mesopotamia. The Bible contains language that is almost identical to the Code’s policy of punishing in-kind benefits, with multiple references to “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” And some scholars have argued that the biblical covenant code, which contains many laws for Christians and Jews, comes largely from the Hammurabi code.

Elements of legal thought that existed in Hammurabi’s time still exist today. For example, the Code assumes a person is innocent if there is evidence to the contrary. The Mesopotamian legal system gave both defendants and prosecutors the opportunity to present their cases before a judge. The laws were even responsible for bad legal judgments – the fifth law states that if a judge is found to have committed a mistake, they must pay a fine and be removed from the bank. Forever.

In addition to insights into early case law, the collection of laws also offers a detailed insight into an ancient society. We learn that the Mesopotamians not only had a legal system but also a tax system. Marriage was bound by laws governing dowry, property, and the birth of children. Prostitution and slavery were both legal. Men could be drafted into the king’s army to fight his battles. Wealthier landowners usually hired laborers for their fields or rented their oxen and donkeys for work.

We also see how rigidly segmented Mesopotamian society was. Slaves were down but could in some cases be freed. Free-born men had the most rights, while women had additional restrictions on what they could own and what freedoms they had.

The Hammurabi Code offers a glimpse into a society similar and different from ours. What ultimately unites us and the ancient Mesopotamians is the recognition that functioning societies need a set of agreed laws in order to function. A robust legal system is a prerequisite for people to exist close together – which King Hammurabi was obviously very aware of.