From time immemorial, human society has sought to regulate the behavior of its citizens, their rights and obligations, social position and status. The oldest code of laws that has come down to us is the code of Hammurabi, compiled 4 thousand years ago. This legal document, unparalleled in such a distant past, still amazes researchers.
A unique find
The Code of Laws of Hammurabi was found at the very beginning of the 20th century on the territory of modern Iran.
In 1901, a group of archaeologists from France, led by Jacques de Morgan, excavated at Susa. There, in the times of Ancient Mesopotamia, there was the state of Elam, a rival of ancient Babylon.
This expedition found three fragments of a bas alt column just over 2 meters high. When they were connected, it became clear that this was a unique find. At the top of the stele was an image of a king or ruler addressing the god Shamash, who was holding something that looked like a scroll in his hands. Below the picture and on the reverse side of the stele werelines of cuneiform characters.
Probably, the warlike Elamites in one of their raids took the stele from Babylon and delivered it to Elam. The invaders, most likely, broke it, having previously scraped off the first lines of the inscription.
The bas alt pillar was transported to the Louvre, where the inscriptions on it were deciphered and translated by Assyrology professor J.-V. Sheil. It turned out to be the code of the Babylonian king Hammurabi, containing a detailed set of laws. Later, the destroyed articles were restored on the basis of records on clay tablets, including from the library of Ashurbanipal, found in ancient Nineveh.
Babylon 18 centuries before the birth of Christ
Collection of laws of Hammurabi can be called the pinnacle of the lawmaking of ancient civilizations. It was created during the heyday of the Babylonian kingdom in the 18th century BC. e. It was a perfect state for those times with a strong, albeit limited, royal power. Considered a servant of the supreme deity, the king ruled, relying on the priests, and his actions, like the behavior of any other inhabitant of Babylon, were regulated by laws. This reflects the code of Hammurabi, whose articles are devoted to the rights and duties of citizens.
The basis of the economy of Ancient Babylon was agriculture, and the duty of the ruler was to control the condition of the fields, especially since most of the land belonged to the state.
The developed system of officials made it possible to successfully solve the most complex problems of government, andthe standing army protected not only the outer borders, but also the internal order and authority of the king.
Hammurabi - commander and statesman
Hammurabi, who came to power at a young age, showed himself as an outstanding organizer, commander and diplomat. During his more than thirty years of rule, he systematically solved three main tasks.
- Unification of disparate and warring states of Mesopotamia under its rule.
- Development of agriculture based on a powerful irrigation system.
- Establishment and maintenance of fair laws, which were embodied in the code of Hammurabi.
And we should pay tribute to this outstanding ruler: he not only successfully coped with the tasks set, but also became famous precisely because of his code.
Hammurabi Code. General characteristics
Judging by the first lines of the cuneiform text, the main purpose of creating the code is to establish universal justice. The king was declared the main guarantor of this and the source of all blessings.
The main part of the code is articles of laws, there are several hundred of them in the code. Despite the appeal to the gods in the introduction, the articles themselves have no connection with the religious aspects of the life of people of that time, but deal exclusively with legal issues.
At the end of this document, the king lists his merits before the country and the gods in the pompous manner adopted at that time and calls the punishment of the gods on the heads of lawbreakers.
Characterization of the code of King Hammurabi can be given from both legal and historical points of view.
The result of Hammurabi's legislative activity
As a legal document, the code of King Hammurabi is a set of norms governing the behavior of citizens of the state in various fields: political, economic, family and household, etc. That is, the articles of the code are related to both criminal and and to civil law, even in Ancient Babylon, these concepts themselves did not yet exist.
The norms of the code of laws are largely based on customary law, ancient traditions and old Sumerian legislation. But Hammurabi supplemented the code with his vision of legal relations.
Solid cuneiform text engraved on the stele, the researchers divided into paragraphs or articles that can be grouped by subject:
- articles relating to property relations: inheritance rights, economic obligations to the king and the state;
- family law;
- articles related to criminal offenses: murder, self-mutilation, theft.
However, the very first "section" of the code describes measures aimed at preventing arbitrariness in the courts, and the rules governing the behavior of judges. This distinguishes the laws of Hammurabi from other ancient laws.
Property Law
Articles related to this area are aimed at protecting property rights, with priority given to state property and propertyking. The ruler also had the exclusive right to dispose of all the land in the state, and the communities paid a tax to the treasury for the use of the land.
Regulation of land ownership rights, including those received for service, and the conditions for renting property in the code pays great attention. The rules for the use of irrigation facilities and the punishment for the harm caused to them are described. The code also provided for punishment for an unfair trade deal, helping a runaway slave, damaging someone else's property, etc.
It should be noted that Hammurabi's code contained many articles that were quite progressive for that time. For example, it limited the time of debt slavery to three years, regardless of the size of the debt.
Family Law
Family relations, as follows from the code, had a patriarchal character: the wife and children were obliged to obey the owner of the house, according to the law, a man could have several wives and adopt the children of slaves. The wife and children were in fact the property of the man. A father could disinherit his sons.
The woman, however, was not completely disenfranchised. If the husband treated her rudely, accused her of treason without evidence, the wife had the right to return to her parents, taking the dowry. She could own her own property and in some cases make transactions.
When entering into marriage, a marriage contract was concluded, which stipulated the rights of the wife, including property.
Punishment for crimes against the life and he alth of citizens
Pen alties for crimin althe crimes described in the code are distinguished by cruelty - the most common punishment was the death pen alty. Moreover, in the main, the articles of criminal law relied on the principle of talion, widespread in antiquity, according to which the punishment should be similar (equivalent) to the crime committed.
This logical principle, from the point of view of the consciousness of ancient man, was often brought to the point of absurdity. So, in one of the articles of the code it is written that if the builder built a fragile house, and as a result of its collapse the son of the owner of the house died, then it is necessary to kill the builder's child.
Sometimes corporal punishment could be replaced by a fine, especially if it involved harming a slave.
The society of Ancient Babylon did not know special judges, and administrative officials and eminent people of the city were engaged in settling relations between citizens and determining the punishment for crimes. The king himself was considered the supreme judge, whose verdict was not contested.
In the time of Hammurabi, temple courts also existed, but they did not play a significant role in legal proceedings and only took oaths in front of a statue of a deity in the temple.
Hammurabi's laws as a historical document
The Code of Hammurabi is a unique source for studying not only the history of law, but also the political life, life and material culture of people who lived in Mesopotamia 2 thousand years before the birth of Christ.
Many nuances and features of life in Ancient Babylon became known only thanks to this collectionlaws. So, from the code of Hammurabi, historians learned that, in addition to free and full-fledged community members and disenfranchised slaves, there were also “mushkenums” in Babylonian society. These are partially disenfranchised poor who serve the king or the state, for example, in the construction of canals.
Agriculture and domestic politics, handicrafts and he alth care, the education system and family and marriage relations - everything is reflected in the code of laws of Hammurabi.
