How The Code Of Hammurabi Used Today

The Code of Hammurabi is a set of laws created during the king, Hammurabi’s reign over the city of Babylon. Babylon at that time was a prosperous city in Southwest Asia. The Babylonians practiced Polytheism which meant that they believed in many gods. Hammurabi decided to create the code because he thought there was a need for a universal set of laws for all the diverse people he ruled in his kingdom. The Code of laws consisted of 282 laws.

His laws would be considered very harsh if they were used today. “An eye for an eye” was the phrase his code could be given. He believed that whatever one human being did to the other should be returned equally. This meant that if a man cut out another man’s eye, the deed should be returned. This carried

The laws were carved in a four sided slab of diorite in cuneiform. At its top is a two and a half foot relief carving of a standing Hammurabi receiving the set of laws. Cuneiform was the form of writing used in Mesopotamia. About all the people who lived there wrote in cuneiform. That is all of the scribes at least. Also the king and some priests knew how to write. This is another thing today’s society would consider wrong. Though, back then there wasn’t as much technology. They didn’t have all of the luxuries we have

Babylon was in central Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia was in South Western Asia. Hammurabi’s family descended from the Amorites, a tribe in Syria. His name meant great and family. He ended up becoming the king of Babylon in 1792 and ruled for 42 years. He created the Code of Hammurabi in his last reigning decade. He died a few years after creating the code of laws. The code was meant to establish justice and to keep more order in Babylon. It ended up working well and establishing order.

The Code of Hammurabi was found in 1901 by a French mining engineer. He found it on his archaeological expedition to Persia to excavate the capital of Susa. The city was only 250 miles from Hammurabi’s previous kingdom. They found the stele broken up into three pieces and sent it to Paris where it was translated in less than a year. It was one of the first code of laws ever found in history. Some researchers also realized it resembled the Old Testament, which was one of the Jews most prized possessions. It is also part of today’s holy bible. The Old Testament was from the Hebrew bible