Mesopotamia is sometimes referred to the birthplace of civilization. The earliest cities and civilizations developed there more than 6,000 years ago. There are many reasons it is called the birthplace of civilization: the first cities grew up there, they developed the earliest forms of writing and the first real rules and laws for the way a group operates were established.
The Hammurabi Code was put into place by King Hammurabi, who ruled from 1792 to 1750 B.C. The code includes 282 laws and standards. These rules covered everything from the way people conducted business to punishments for people who broke the law. The code was inscribed onto a finger-shaped black stone pillar, which was a four-ton slab of diorite. At its top is a two-and-a-half-foot carving of Hammurabi getting a measuring rod and tape from the the Babylonian god of justice. The measuring rod and tape represent the law. The stone was stolen by invaders and was rediscovered in Iran in 1901 by Jacques de Morgan, a French mining engineer, who led an archeological dig.
CODE noun \ kōd\
1: a systematic statement of a body of law; especially: one given statutory force
2: a system of principles or rules
8 Things You May NOT Know About Hammurabi’s Code
• It’s not the earliest known code of laws.
• The Code included many bizarre and gruesome forms of punishment.
• The laws varied according to social class and gender.
• The Code established a minimum wage for workers.
• The Code includes one of the earliest examples of the presumption of innocence.
• Historians are still unsure of the role the Code played in Babylonian culture.
• The Code endured even after Babylon was conquered.
• The laws weren’t rediscovered until the 20th century.
Did you know?
Hammurabi’s Code includes many harsh punishments, sometimes demanding the removal of the guilty party’s tongue, hands, eye or ear. But the code is also one of the earliest examples of the idea of the accused being considered innocent until proven guilty. Here are some examples of the rules: If a man steals an ox, he must pay back 30 times its value.
A doctor’s fee for curing a severe wound would be 10 silver shekels for a gentleman, five shekels for a freedman and two shekels for a slave. A doctor who killed a rich patient would have his hands cut off, while only financial restitution was required if the victim was a slave.
