Hammurabi's Law Code Essay

This primary resource was created sometime between 1793 and 1750 B.C.E., a time in Mesopotamia where King Hammurabi of Babylon conquered the entire area. Babylonians were Indo Europeans who were known as Battle Axe people who were not literate as first, but soon discover some source of literature over time. Indo Europeans worshipped the Sky God, which was believed to influence the flooding of the two rivers surrounding Mesopotamia. The flooding had a great impact on the beliefs of the Indo Europeans. This text is a list of codes that the Babylonians followed as their first set of laws. With limited resources, these codes were set in place to protect an individual’s rights and did not feel threaten by anyone else. When reviewing the laws established, you can see that they apply to everyday life, and should be followed in everyday life. This was the effect of an expanding bureaucracy. With such an expansion come more responsible of the government to protect the new people.

Hammurabi’s codes provide us with rare insight into the daily life of ancient urban society. Law Codes give us an idea of a people’s sense of justice and notions of proper punishment. The laws were set up in different topics which include, property, theft, economics, contracts, family, marriage, assault, personal injury, responsibility,

For it to be the first set of laws it helped shape future law systems, and future governments. Not only shape a foundation for future law system, but create a barrier between what is right or wrong. One of the codes that stood out to me in Hammurabi’s codes and to the present day is code 128, “If a man marries a wife but does not draw up a formal contract for her, that women is not a wife” (53). With such a similarity, it shows the importance of these ancient codes. Each generation feeds off the one prior and these codes started and establish a loyalty to the law, for it to be obeyed