Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Hammurabi was to rule "to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak" (37–39: dannum enšam ana lā ḫabālim). He was to rise like Shamash over the Mesopotamians (the ṣalmāt qaqqadim, literally the "black-headed people") and illuminate the land (40–44). [59] [note 1] Hammurabi then lists his achievements and virtues (50–291).
Cuneiform law refers to any of the legal codes written in cuneiform script that were developed and used throughout the ancient Middle East among the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Elamites, Hurrians, Kassites, and Hittites. [1] The Code of Hammurabi is the best-known of the cuneiform laws, but there were a number of precursor laws. [1]
Fragment of the Code of Hammurabi.One of the most important institutions of Mesopotamia and the ancient world. It was a compilation of previous laws (Code of Ur-Namma, Code of Ešnunna) that were shaped and renewed in the time of Hammurabi and was made to be embodied in cuneiform script on sculptures and rocks in all public places throughout the ancient Babylonian state, heir to the Akkadian ...
The laws are formulated as case laws; they start with a condition, and a ruling follows, e.g. "If anyone tears off the ear of a male or female slave, he shall pay 3 shekels of silver". The laws show an aversion to the death penalty; the usual penalty for serious offenses being enslavement to forced labour.
In Exodus 21, as in the Code of Hammurabi, the concept of reciprocal justice seemingly applies to social equals; the statement of reciprocal justice "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe" [29] is followed by an example of a different law: if a slave-owner ...
It prescribed specific penalties for each crime and is among the first codes to establish the presumption of innocence. They were intended to limit what a wronged person was permitted to do in retribution. The Code of Hammurabi and the Law of Moses in the Torah contain numerous similarities. Hammurabi was seen by many as a god within his own ...
Although it is known that earlier law-codes existed, such as the Code of Urukagina, this represents the earliest extant legal text. It is three centuries older than the Code of Hammurabi . The laws are arranged in casuistic form of IF (crime) THEN (punishment)—a pattern followed in nearly all later codes.
Babylonian law is a subset of cuneiform law that has received particular study due to the large amount of archaeological material that has been found for it. So-called "contracts" exist in the thousands, including a great variety of deeds, conveyances, bonds, receipts, accounts, and most important of all, actual legal decisions given by the judges in the law courts.