The Code of Hamurabi

The Code of Hammurabi are a collection of laws that were observed by the Babylonian people. In the introduction, Hammurabi, the king of the Babylonians, said to have written it. Presumably, he wrote it sometime during his reign from 1792-1750 B.C.E. The Code was originally found inscribed on a large stele, which would have been made available for public display. This means that while these laws were made available for the education and observation of the population of Babylon, as well as members of the government. Before that actual laws are stated, there is an introduction, involving lots of god-talk and glorification of Hammurabi. There are laws, 282 of them, and then an afterword of sorts, that includes a bit of historical context, as well as more god-talk and glorification of Hammurabi (Hammurabi, the perfect king, am I). We see in the laws a recurring theme of "adult, male, native Babylonian," and "everyone else." Slaves, women, and children (or a combination of those) are not given nearly equivalent rights to that of the "adult, male, native Babylonian." My favorite example being law #132, where, if an otherwise innocent woman is accused of cheating, she should throw herself in the river- just for the sake of her husband. Throwing yourself in the river is another recurring theme in the Code. If it was unclear who was innocent, the accused would throw themselves into the river, and if the gods let them survive, they were innocent. Amongst the strange and unfair laws, I noticed, were two good ideas. The first is a kind of minimum wage, making the pay for a certain job clear and official. The other was the concept of "innocent until proven guilty," which we may recognize as the foundation of the American judicial system.