Code of Hammurabi

A collection of laws issued under Babylonian king Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE and preserved on a stone stele. Its provisions address subjects including family life, property, trade, and injury.

Old Babylonian Empire: A Mesopotamian kingdom centered on Babylon that flourished during the early second millennium BCE. Hammurabi’s laws emerged from this kingdom’s political and social order.
Social class in ancient Mesopotamia: A hierarchical system distinguishing social groups with different rights and obligations in ancient Mesopotamia. Penalties in the laws vary according to the status of the people involved.
Ur-Nammu: A king of Ur associated with one of the earliest surviving written law collections, composed around the twenty-first century BCE. His collection predates Hammurabi’s and shows that written royal laws had earlier precedents.
Babylonian marriage law: Rules governing marriage, divorce, dowries, and related family obligations in ancient Babylon. The collection specifies consequences for marital conduct and financial arrangements.
Shamash: The Mesopotamian sun god associated with justice and divination. The stele depicts Shamash granting symbols of authority to Hammurabi.
Hammurabi: An eighteenth-century BCE king of Babylon who expanded his kingdom across much of Mesopotamia. The stele presents the laws as his royal work and authority.
Lex talionis: A principle of proportionate retaliation, often summarized as punishment matching the harm inflicted. Several provisions prescribe bodily penalties framed as repayment for injury.
Lipit-Ishtar: A king of Isin whose Sumerian law collection was composed in the early second millennium BCE. His laws offer a closer chronological predecessor to Hammurabi’s collection.
Babylonian inheritance law: Rules governing the transfer of property and family obligations after a person’s death in ancient Babylon. Several provisions define how children and spouses share or lose claims to property.
Louvre stele of Hammurabi: The basalt monument bearing Hammurabi’s laws, excavated at Susa and now held by the Louvre. This surviving monument carries the inscription and imagery associated with the collection.

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