today we're looking at the Code of Hammurabi
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where you'll find more resources that go with many of the bellringer videos if anyone accuses
another of murder but cannot prove it then the accuser shall be put to death if anyone steals
anything from the temple he will be put to death and also the one who received the stolen goods
will be put to death these are but two of many harsh rules set forth in the Code of Hammurabi
which was written somewhere around 1750 BC during the rule of King Hammurabi of Babylon although
extremely severe the 282 laws established in the code are considered to be one of the first
written records of laws in human history and set the basis for many laws that are still enforced
today Hammurabi ruled Babylon located in the Fertile Crescent in present-day Iraq from 1792
BC until 1750 BC during his rule of Babylon he expanded the Babylonian Empire up and down the
Tigris and Euphrates rivers and eventually ruled the entire region late in his Reign the Code of
Hammurabi was written onto a black stone Steely which measures close to seven and a half feet in
height asteli is an upright stone slab or pillar with an inscription or design carved into it at
the top of the code is a relief sculpture that features King Hammurabi standing on the left
speaking to shamash who is Seated on the right who the Babylonians believed was the sun god or
God of Justice below is the code itself written in cuneiform and inscribed into the stone it begins
with a prologue or introduction that describes Hammurabi's Royal Authority and describes his
achievements it then continues into three sections of laws dealing with procedural laws property
laws and laws dealing with individual citizens of Babylon the laws are written as if then statement
it's basically saying if someone does this then this will be the consequence for example one law
reads if a person is proven to have stolen an ox then he or she will have to pay back 30 times
the value of the stolen Ox the laws of course are notoriously harsh with many consequences being the
removal of hands tongues or ears and many laws simply call for the guilty party to be put to
death possibly the most famous law from the Code of Hammurabi is the eye for an eye stating that
if a person puts out someone else's eye then the injured person has the right to put out the other
person's eye or another interesting law states that if a builder builds a faulty building and
the son of the owner of the building is killed when the building collapses then the owner has
the right to kill the son of the Builder although the consequences for many crimes were extreme the
code did establish a basic principle of law that is still widely adhered to throughout the world
today of someone being innocent until proven guilty additionally during a time period in
history when women did not have many rights the code did include laws that explicitly protected
women although women were still not given equal rights to men and speaking of Rights the code did
not deal with all people of Babylon equally as there are distinctions made between the rights
and punishments for different classes of citizens from Property Owners to free citizens to enslaved
people the code also established Fair wages for work and prices for different Services the code
then concluded with an epilogue or conclusion in which it states these are the just decisions which
Hammurabi has established as well as stating that the purpose of the laws is to prevent the strong
from oppressing the weak as with many empires of Mesopotamia foreign Invaders eventually conquered
the region and the code was lost for hundreds and hundreds of years it was not until 1901 that
French archaeologist digging in Modern Day Iran located the Steely about 250 miles from the heart
of Hammurabi's Kingdom it had been broken into three pieces but archaeologists pieced it back
together and took it to the Louvre museum in Paris France where it still resides today although the
code itself is very harsh and many of its rules seem unfair Hammurabi and his code is regarded
as an important step in civilizations establishing laws today the United States Supreme Court and in
the United States Capitol Building there are images of Hammurabi paying tribute to him in
the development of law so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching
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