Code of Hammurabi Explained_ The World's First Written Laws

Hello and welcome to the Daily Bellringer World History. Please don't forget to subscribe and take a look at the questions down in the description. Also, don't forget to check out DailyBellringer.com 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 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 in force 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 stele, which measures close to 7.5 feet in height. A stele 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 Shemash, 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 statements, 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 archaeologists digging in modern-day Iran located the stele 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.