Recognizing the power of religious beliefs to influence personal behavior, he presented his laws as if they had been received by the gods. He seems to have made sure that people understood that the king was only the administrator, not the author of the code, and when someone broke the law, they rebelled against God`s will. Kriwaczek comments: «The first copy of the code, in two fragments found at Nippur, was translated by Samuel Kramer in 1952; Due to its partial preservation, only the prologue and 5 of the laws were recognizable. Other panels were found in your and translated in 1965, so that about 40 of the 57 laws could be rebuilt. Another copy found in Sippar contains light variants. Hammurabi`s laws reflect the shock of an unprecedented social environment: the multi-ethnic, multi-tribal Babylonian world. In earlier Sumerian-Akkadian times, all communities felt like common members of the same family, all equally servants before the eyes of the gods. In such circumstances, disputes could be resolved through a collectively accepted value system in which blood was thicker than water and just reparation was more desirable than revenge. Now that the city`s citizens frequently encountered nomads who followed a completely different way of life, when speakers of several Western Semitic languages of Amurru as well as others were mixed with incomprehensible Akkers, the confrontation must have too easily turned into conflict. (180) The prologue describes how the moon god chose Nanna ur-Nammu as king of Uren, helped him defeat the city of Larsa, and provided him with laws according to which all subjects, regardless of their social status, were considered equal, so that «the orphan was not a victim of the rich, the widow was not a victim of the powerful, the man of a shekel was not a victim of the man of sixty shekels» (Kramer, 54). The laws were formulated in the si-this-then-that conditional sentence model. Here are some examples: There are also laws that ensure that if an accused`s innocence is proven, his accuser will be punished instead.
For example: «If a man is accused of witchcraft, he must undergo a test with water; If his innocence is proven, his accuser must pay 3 shekels» and «If a man accuses a man`s wife of adultery and the ordeal of the river has proven her innocence, then the man who accused her must pay a third of a mina of money.» The code reveals an overview of the social structure during your third dynasty. Under the lugal («great man» or king), all members of society belonged to one of two basic classes: the lu or free person or the slave (male, arad; female gem). The son of a Lu was called Dumu-Nita until he married and became a «young man» (guru). A woman (munus) went from a daughter (dumu-mi) to a woman (mother), and then if she survived her husband, a widow (nu-ma-su) who could remarry. Instead, courts relied on traditional methods – such as torture – to establish guilt or innocence, and then imposed any sentence they deemed appropriate. The Lipit-Ishtar Code appears to have been created primarily to deal with disputes arising from issues of inheritance, inheritance, and debt slavery, and although the upper class may have strictly followed the laws as they were written, villages, towns, and municipalities seem to have viewed them as a guideline rather than a code of law. if they recognized them at all. It is not known when the Hammurabi Codex was written, but it seems to have been introduced around 1772 BC. J.-C. to create an order in Babylon that would provide a stable home front from which military campaigns could be launched.
The population of Babylon was much more diverse than the subjects of Ur-Nammu or Lipit-Ishtar, as it was a cosmopolitan intellectual and commercial center that attracted people from all over the region and even from Egypt and Greece. The Code of Hammurabi therefore had to present a set of laws that went beyond national legal traditions or understandings that people might have, as well as all the traditional legal practices observed in the various Mesopotamian city-states and kingdoms. Kriwaczek comments: During the reign of the fifth king of the Isin dynasty, Lipit-Ishtar, a new law was needed. One of the most important provisions of the Lipit-Ishtar Code dealt with debt slavery, which was widespread, whether by persons who sold themselves into slavery or by members of their families. The code also required community service for public works and established fair tax rates and probate laws. Although these laws were known and understood by the legal assemblies, they were generally not consulted to make a judgment, as the scientist Gwendolyn Leick explains: The codex was widely disseminated during the reign of Shulgi, who, as already mentioned, may even have been the actual author. However, there was no need to publicly display the laws, as the people under ur-Nammu and Shulgi shared a common set of values and traditions, and the laws were designed to promote appropriate behavior within already established parameters. The scholar Samuel Noah Kramer describes the code as it appears in the columns of a cuneiform clay tablet: although it is neither a true code of law, it is far from exhaustive; Yet, some say, even introduced by your-Nammu, but by his son Shulgi, code or not, although we only have fragments, they are enough to show that the laws covered both civil and criminal cases. Among the penal provisions, it determines what the crimes punishable by death should be: murder, theft, desecration of another man`s virgin woman and adultery if committed by a woman. For the other offences, the penalty was a cash fine. [ur-Nammus Codex stands] in contrast to Hammurabi`s more famous laws, which were written about three centuries later, with their wild dispositions of «an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.» (148-149) Other tablets were found in you and translated in 1965, so that about 30 of the 57 laws could be rebuilt.
[2] Another copy found in Sippar contains slight variations. Hammurabi was a king of the 1st Dynasty of Babylon (c. 1792-1750).[3] His code of law, as depicted in a cuneiform inscription with nearly 300 declarations, is arguably the most comprehensive document of the old law and is often cited as the starting point for all subsequent laws. The Code covers many topics, including family law, criminal law and civil law. AncientPages.com 2016. Code of your Nammu: the oldest known law in the world. [Online] Available at: www.ancientpages.com/2016/03/11/codes-of-your-nammu-worlds-oldest-known-law-code/ The Codex of your-Nammu is the oldest surviving code of law. It was written in Sumerian around 2100-2050 BC. J.-C. Although the preface directly describes the laws of King Ur-Nammu of Ur (2112-2095 BC). Chr.) some historians believe that they should instead be attributed to his son Shulgi.
These resources seem to have been enormous as construction projects multiplied and Sumerian city-states flourished under Ur-Nammu. To maintain this prosperity, ur-Nammu introduced its code of law, which ensured that everyone understood what was required of them to live in peace under his rule. Instead of fines, the code was based on the concept of retaliatory justice (also known as Lex Talionis), defined by the famous saying «an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.» Although they are almost certainly modeled on the Code of your-Nammu, Hammurabi`s laws were much more detailed to ensure strict compliance. Since kings were considered the guardians of law and order, they often issued legislative reforms, debt forgiveness, and decrees that were recorded in writing and are often referred to as codes of law, although there is no evidence that the courts ever referred to such edicts.