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Hammurabi's Code
Hammurabi's Code engraved on a stone.
Hammurabi was a Mesopotamian king who recorded a system of laws called the Code of Hammurabi. His 282 laws were engraved in stone and placed in a public location for everyone to see. Some of Hammurabi's laws were based on the principle "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." This means that whoever commits an injury should be punished in the same manner as that injury. If someone puts out another person's eye, their eye would be put out in return.
Hammurabi reigned from 1795 to 1750BC in the city-state of Babylon. Sumer was once the most populated part of Mesopotamia. The population shifted upriver and new kingdoms formed. One of the richest and most powerful was Babylon.
Hammurabi's Code helps us understand what life was like in ancient Babylon. Equal punishment existed only when the two sides were of equal rank. The punishment would be less if the injured person was a woman or a slave. One law said, "if a man strikes a free-born woman so that she loses her unborn child, he shall pay ten shekels for her loss." Another says, "if a man has caught either a male or female runaway slave in the open field and has brought him back to his owner, the owner of the slave shall give him two shekels of silver."
Hammurabi Code is the earliest form of law that we are able to read and study because, in 1901, a French expedition to Mesopotamia uncovered a copy of the Babylonian king's laws. The stone pillar where Hammurabi had his laws engraved is on display at the Louvre, a museum in Paris, France.
Hammurabi reigned from 1795 to 1750BC in the city-state of Babylon. Sumer was once the most populated part of Mesopotamia. The population shifted upriver and new kingdoms formed. One of the richest and most powerful was Babylon.
Hammurabi's Code helps us understand what life was like in ancient Babylon. Equal punishment existed only when the two sides were of equal rank. The punishment would be less if the injured person was a woman or a slave. One law said, "if a man strikes a free-born woman so that she loses her unborn child, he shall pay ten shekels for her loss." Another says, "if a man has caught either a male or female runaway slave in the open field and has brought him back to his owner, the owner of the slave shall give him two shekels of silver."
Hammurabi Code is the earliest form of law that we are able to read and study because, in 1901, a French expedition to Mesopotamia uncovered a copy of the Babylonian king's laws. The stone pillar where Hammurabi had his laws engraved is on display at the Louvre, a museum in Paris, France.