Since time immemorial, human society has sought to regulate the behavior of its citizens, their rights and obligations, social status and status. The oldest code of laws that has come down to us is the Hammurabi Code, drawn up 4 thousand years ago. This legal document, which has no analogues in such a distant past, still amazes researchers.
Unique find
The Hammurabi Code of Laws 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 in Susa. There during the time of Ancient Mesopotamia was the state of Elam - a rival of ancient Babylon.
This expedition found three fragments of a basalt column a little 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 in his hands something like a scroll. Below the picture and on the back of the stele there were lines of cuneiform signs.
Probably, the warlike Elamites in one of their raids took the stele from Babylon and delivered to Elam. The invaders, most likely, broke it, having previously scraped off the first lines of the inscription.
The basalt 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 code 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
The collection of laws of Hammurabi can be called the peak of the lawmaking of ancient civilizations. It was created in the heyday of the Babylonian kingdom in the XVIII century BC. e. It was a state perfect at that time with strong, albeit limited, royal power. The king was considered a servant of the supreme deity, relying on the priests, and his actions, like the behavior of any other resident of Babylon, were regulated by laws. This reflects the Hammurabi Code, whose articles are dedicated to the rights and obligations 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.
A well-developed system of officials made it possible to successfully solve the most complex problems of government, and a standing army defended not only external borders, but also the internal order and power of the king.
Hammurabi - commander and statesman
Hammurabi, who came to power at a young age, proved to be an outstanding organizer, commander and diplomat. During his more than thirty years of rule, he systematically solved three main tasks.
- The unification of disparate and warring states of Mesopotamia under its rule.
- Agricultural development based on a powerful irrigation system.
- The establishment and maintenance of fair laws, which are embodied in the Hammurabi Code.
And we should pay tribute to this outstanding ruler: he not only successfully completed his tasks, but also became famous thanks to his code.
Hammurabi Codex. general characteristics
Judging by the first lines of the cuneiform text, the main goal of creating the code is the establishment of universal justice. The king was declared the main guarantor of this and the source of all benefits.
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 relate exclusively to legal issues.
In conclusion of this document, the king lists his services to the country and the gods in the pompous manner adopted at that time and calls upon the punishment of the gods on the heads of violators of the law.
The characterization of the code of King Hammurabi can be given both from a legal and historical point of view.
Hammurabi's legislative result
As a legal document, the code of King Hammurabi is a set of rules governing the behavior of citizens of the state in a variety of areas: political, economic, family, household, etc. That is, the articles of the code are related to both criminal and civil law, even in Ancient Babylon, these concepts themselves did not 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.
Researchers divided the cuneiform text embossed on the stele 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 conduct of judges. This distinguishes the laws of Hammurabi from other ancient judges.
Property law
Articles relating to this area are aimed at protecting property rights, with state property and the king’s property having priority. The ruler also had the exclusive right to dispose of all land in the state, and the communities paid a tax for the use of land to the treasury.
The Code pays great attention to the regulation of land ownership rights, including those received for service, and the conditions for renting property. It describes the rules for using irrigation facilities and the punishment for harm caused to them. The Code also provided for punishment for an unfair trade transaction, assistance to a runaway slave, damage to other people's property, etc.
It should be noted that the Hammurabi code contained many quite progressive articles for that time. For example, in it the time of debt slavery was limited to three years, regardless of the size of the debt.
Family law
Family relations, as follows from the code, were patriarchal in nature: a wife and children were required to obey the owner of the house, according to the law, a man could have several wives and adopt children of slaves. The wife and children were in fact the property of the man. A father could deprive the sons of inheritance.
The woman, however, was not completely disempowered. If the husband mistreated her, accused 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.
Upon marriage, a prenuptial agreement was concluded which stipulated the rights of the wife, including property.
Punishments for crimes against the life and health of citizens
The penalties for the criminal offenses described in the code are brutal - the death penalty was the most common punishment. Moreover, the articles of criminal law mainly relied on the principle of the 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 an ancient person, 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 was killed, then it is necessary to kill the child of the builder.
Sometimes corporal punishment could be replaced by a fine, especially if it was a question of 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 regulating the relations between citizens and determining the punishment for crimes. The supreme judge, whose sentence was not disputed, was considered the king himself.
Temple courts existed at the time of Hammurabi, but they did not play a significant role in the legal proceedings and only took oaths in front of the statue of the deity in the temple.
Hammurabi laws as a historical document
The Hammurabi Codex 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 the territory of Mesopotamia 2 thousand years before the birth of Christ.
Many nuances and features of life in Ancient Babylon became known only thanks to this collection of laws. Thus, historians learned from the Hammurabi Code that, in addition to free and full-fledged communes and disenfranchised slaves, there were still “muskenums” in Babylonian society. These are partially powerless poor serving the king or the state, for example, in the construction of canals.
Agriculture and domestic politics, craft and healthcare, a training system, and family and marriage relationships are all reflected in the Hammurabi Code of Laws.