Code of Hammurabi
Topic: Bronze Age Civilisations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China · NCERT: Class 9, Ch 4 "Early Humans and Beginning of Civilisation"
Meaning
The Code of Hammurabi is a set of laws issued by Hammurabi, the king of Babylon who came to power in 1792 BCE and turned his city-state into an empire. The laws, about 282 of them, were carved in cuneiform (wedge-shaped script) on a stone stele (a tall stone slab with writing). They covered everyday civil and social matters such as trade, property, family and crime. It is one of the earliest great written law codes and became a model for later legal systems.
Example
The top of Hammurabi's stele shows the king receiving the laws from Shamash, the god of justice. The laws are written below in cuneiform. The picture showed that the king's laws came with the gods' approval.
Don't confuse with
- Uruk tablets (c. 3200 BCE): the first writing, used only to keep temple accounts. Hammurabi's code came much later and used writing to set out laws.