The code certainly favored people of wealth and rank, who were required only to pay a fine if they injured commoners. The woman who did so and survived the ordeal would be recognized as innocent, but then her accuser would be found guilty of false witness and punished by death. The code also favored men over women. Cite This Work The ordeal was resorted to regularly in what were considered the most serious crimes, adultery and sorcery, because it was thought these two infractions were most likely to undermine social stability. For only $5 per month you can become a member and support our mission to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2022 National Geographic Partners, LLC. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. Students use multimodal technology platforms to create original demonstrations of learning on any of the following topics and topics they personally choose and research: Assign small groups.
In such circumstances disputes could be settled by recourse to a collectively accepted value system, where blood was thicker than water, and fair restitution more desirable than revenge. There is an image at the top and an inscription underneath. NCSS.D2.His.4.6-8. Number one hundred and eight indicates that women could own at least some kinds of businesses in Old Babylonia. Zimri-Lim is thought to have been killed in this engagement as he vanishes from the historical record in that same year. In this exercise Hammurabi has gathered his councils of advisors together. The alliances he made with other states would repeatedly be broken when the king found it necessary to do so but, as rulers continued to enter into pacts with Hammurabi, it does not seem to have occurred to any of them that he would do the same to them as he had previously to others.
Adultery by a husband might go unpunished, but an unfaithful wife would be executed. The vast kingdom Hammurabi had built during his lifetime began to fall apart within a year of his death. Mark, Joshua J.. 3000 - 323 BC, 2nd Edition, Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This illustrated graphic takes you through one of the greatest and most enigmatic engineering achievements of all time. Setting laws down in writing discouraged judges from ruling arbitrarily and promoted the idea of justice as universal and enduring. More fire. In the 18th Century BCE, Hammurabi (also spelled Hammurapi) became the sixth ruler in the First Dynasty of Babylon. Why would Hammurabi want his name associated with the names of gods? The fourth precept indicates that fines of money and/or grain were imposed and implies the existence of something akin to our civil suits in which the complainant received a settlement. Analyze multiple factors that influenced the perspectives of people during different historical eras. Hammurabi is best remembered today as a lawgiver whose code served as a standard for later laws but, in his time, he was known as the ruler who united Mesopotamia under a single governing body in the same way Sargon the Great of Akkad had done centuries before. Conquered cities were absorbed into Hammurabi's kingdom & then repaired & improved upon. The code of laws attributed to him is one of the earliest and most comprehensive of such law codification efforts. However, today he is most famous for a series of judgments inscribed on a large stone stele and dubbed Hammurabi's Code. The scholar Stephen Bertman notes how Hammurabi's personal character worked to his advantage early in his reign: Hammurabi was an able administrator, an adroit diplomat, and canny imperialist, patient in the achievement of his goals. Scholars have long debated why Hammurabi would break his alliance with Zimri-Lim but the reason seems fairly clear: Mari was an important, luxurious, and prosperous trade center on the Euphrates River and possessed great riches and, of course, water rights. Hiking amid Andean peaks, ancient ruinsand no crowdson this 19,000-mile stone path from Colombia to Argentina. Then, with his power at home secure and his military forces primed, he began a five-year series of campaigns against rival states to the south and east, expanding his territory. If a builder build a house for someone, and does not construct it properly. During his time as king he oversaw a great expansion of his kingdom from a city-state to an empire.
Ensure that students can vieweither in print or onscreenthe. If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be broken. Divide the class into five groups. The importance of religion? You may access directly the information about the stele, which is also from the Louvre. Each will report back to the class what they have inferred about their assigned aspect of Babylonian civilization during the time of Hammurabi. In their presentations to the class, students should point to the specific precepts from which they derived their conclusions. World History Encyclopedia. Religion was central to everyday life in Babylonia. The World History Encyclopedia logo is a registered trademark. Hammurabi's code stipulates that: If a man's wife has been pointed out because of another man, even though she has not been caught with him, for her husband's sake she must plunge into the divine river. Finally, number two hundred twenty-eight shows the specificity of the precepts and implies that there was a set fee schedule for the work of skilled tradesmen, in this case a set fee of two shekels for each sar of building, comparable to modern builders who charge so much per square foot.
1764 BCEAttar-Aram syria, using a modified map originally made by Smhur. The historian Kriwaczek explains this, writing: Hammurabi's laws reflect the shock of an unprecedented social environment: the multi-ethnic, multi-tribal Babylonian world. Let the students know that some current books and websites still contain claims that Hammurabi's Code was the first set of laws ever made. NCSS.D2.His.14.6-8. At this point it is uncertain what exactly happened, but it seems that Sin-Muballit was compelled to abdicate in favor of his son Hammurabi. When the Elamites invaded the central plains of Mesopotamia from the east, Hammurabi allied himself with Larsa to defeat them.
Web. Without revealing anything more specific about the stele at this point, tell the students the original, though the only one in existence, is thought to be one of many. That accomplished, he broke the alliance and swiftly took the cities of Uruk and Isin, previously held by Larsa, by forming alliances with other city-states such as Nippur and Lagash. How has Hammurabi's Code influenced subsequent codes of law? Use questions generated about individuals and groups to analyze why they, and the developments they shaped, are seen as historically significant. None of Hammurabi's successors could put the kingdom back together again, and first the Hittites (in 1595 BCE), then the Kassites invaded. The complete text of Hammurabi's Code is available from the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource the Avalon Project. Tell the class we have quite a bit of information about this ancient stele, which you will share with them later, but, for now, you want them to consider the object itself. Vendettas and blood feuds must often have threatened the cohesion of the empire. (221). Rulers down through Napoleon Bonaparte issued their own codes to unite realms that contained people of many different customs and conceptions of justiceand to discourage them from taking the law into their own hands. In so doing, he ignored an inscription that cursed anyone who desecrated the shrine and entreated the gods to cut the offenders throat and annihilate his offspring. The IUCN also announced that sturgeon are in rapid decline, while tiger populations are stabilizing. They never served as a source of precedent when courts rendered decisions. In this activity, students will begin to hypothesize what may have influenced Hammurabi's reign in Babylonia. Social structure (class, gender, etc.) What kind of domestic improvements or policies did groups recommend?
What decided one's guilt or innocence, however, was the much older method of the Ordeal, in which an accused person was sentenced to perform a certain task (usually being thrown into a river or having to swim a certain distance across a river) and, if they succeeded, they were innocent and, if not, they were guilty. As a result of Hammurabi's expansion of the empire, Marduk also began to be considered the chief god of the entire traditional Mesopotamian pantheon. Ask students to point to parts of the code that reflect the following possible reasons for its creation, design, and placement: What other possible reasonsif anyfor the creation of Hammurabi's Code and its public display might be indicated by the text? (CC BY-SA), Law Code Tablet of King Hammurabi from Nippur, Cuneiform Tablet Listing the Names of Old Babylonian Kings. Ask the students to each write a one-sentence hypothesis as to the purpose of Hammurabi's Code. According to the second paragraph what is one supposed to do at one of these stele? Did any suggest improving the system of justice and/or law enforcement? As noted, he is best known in the modern day for his law code which is often cited as being the first in history although it is not. Please be respectful of copyright. The monumental size of Hammurabi's stele dramatized the king's power. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Begin by informing students that Hammurabi became the sixth ruler in the First Dynasty of Babylon in the 18th Century BCE. The precise intention behind the inscription on Hammurabi's Stela remains unclear.
Assess the extent to which Hammurabi's Code remained relevant beyond his death. Now the students can begin to form their own hypotheses about the purpose of Hammurabi's Code. Sign up for our free weekly email newsletter! Have them think about the following questions: Ask students to look carefully at the stele. Unlike Sargon the Great, however, whose multi-ethnic empire was continually torn by internecine strife, Hammurabi ruled over a kingdom whose people enjoyed relative peace following his conquest. Mark, Joshua J.. Who is likely to have ordered the creation, design, and placement of the stele? Think about large public objects with which students might be familiar, such as the statue of Lincoln at his memorial. (219). Each group will play the role of a council of advisors to King Hammurabi. Despite such inequities, the laws promulgated by Hammurabi offered some protection to women, commoners, and slaves. The vast kingdom Hammurabi had built during his lifetime began to fall apart within a year of his death, and those cities that had been part of vassal states secured their borders and announced their autonomy. Ancient Syro-Mesopotamia ca. From Mari, Hammurabi marched on Ashur and took the region of Assyria and finally Eshnunna (also conquered by damming up of the waters) so that, by 1755 BCE, he ruled all of Mesopotamia. He linked himself with great imperialists like Sargon by proclaiming himself the mighty king, king of Babylon, king of the Four Regions of the World, king of Sumer and Akkad, into whose power the god Bel has given over land and people, in whose hand he has placed the reins of government and, just like Sargon (and others), claimed his legitimate rule was ordained by the will of the gods. Ask students to point to a specific example. In the hypothetical speech below, Hammurabi invokes some of the Babylonian gods (Anu Bel, Shamash), as he does in his Code. (2018, April 16). Now, however, when urban citizens commonly rubbed shoulders with nomads following a completely different way of life, when speakers of several west Semitic Amurru languages, as well as others, were thrown together with uncomprehending Akkadians, confrontation must all too easily have spilled over into conflict. Other conquered cities were absorbed into the kingdom and then repaired and improved upon. Hammurabis dynasty lasted only a few generations before it toppled. Get streaming, digital, and print all in one subscription with Nat Geo Premium with Disney+. It is also found in the Hebrew Bible (Exodus 21:1819, 2225, Leviticus 24:1721) and in the Gospels (Matthew 5:38). Next, work through the following questions: In order to give the students a general overview of the pronouncements, ask the class to work on the following questions and tasks: Hammurabi's Code ends with an epilogue, a concluding statement. Prepare the students to read excerpts from the text of Hammurabi's Code by sharing the essay Law and Government from The Oriental Institute: The University of Chicago.
In such circumstances disputes could be settled by recourse to a collectively accepted value system, where blood was thicker than water, and fair restitution more desirable than revenge. There is an image at the top and an inscription underneath. NCSS.D2.His.4.6-8. Number one hundred and eight indicates that women could own at least some kinds of businesses in Old Babylonia. Zimri-Lim is thought to have been killed in this engagement as he vanishes from the historical record in that same year. In this exercise Hammurabi has gathered his councils of advisors together. The alliances he made with other states would repeatedly be broken when the king found it necessary to do so but, as rulers continued to enter into pacts with Hammurabi, it does not seem to have occurred to any of them that he would do the same to them as he had previously to others.
Adultery by a husband might go unpunished, but an unfaithful wife would be executed. The vast kingdom Hammurabi had built during his lifetime began to fall apart within a year of his death. Mark, Joshua J.. 3000 - 323 BC, 2nd Edition, Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This illustrated graphic takes you through one of the greatest and most enigmatic engineering achievements of all time. Setting laws down in writing discouraged judges from ruling arbitrarily and promoted the idea of justice as universal and enduring. More fire. In the 18th Century BCE, Hammurabi (also spelled Hammurapi) became the sixth ruler in the First Dynasty of Babylon. Why would Hammurabi want his name associated with the names of gods? The fourth precept indicates that fines of money and/or grain were imposed and implies the existence of something akin to our civil suits in which the complainant received a settlement. Analyze multiple factors that influenced the perspectives of people during different historical eras. Hammurabi is best remembered today as a lawgiver whose code served as a standard for later laws but, in his time, he was known as the ruler who united Mesopotamia under a single governing body in the same way Sargon the Great of Akkad had done centuries before. Conquered cities were absorbed into Hammurabi's kingdom & then repaired & improved upon. The code of laws attributed to him is one of the earliest and most comprehensive of such law codification efforts. However, today he is most famous for a series of judgments inscribed on a large stone stele and dubbed Hammurabi's Code. The scholar Stephen Bertman notes how Hammurabi's personal character worked to his advantage early in his reign: Hammurabi was an able administrator, an adroit diplomat, and canny imperialist, patient in the achievement of his goals. Scholars have long debated why Hammurabi would break his alliance with Zimri-Lim but the reason seems fairly clear: Mari was an important, luxurious, and prosperous trade center on the Euphrates River and possessed great riches and, of course, water rights. Hiking amid Andean peaks, ancient ruinsand no crowdson this 19,000-mile stone path from Colombia to Argentina. Then, with his power at home secure and his military forces primed, he began a five-year series of campaigns against rival states to the south and east, expanding his territory. If a builder build a house for someone, and does not construct it properly. During his time as king he oversaw a great expansion of his kingdom from a city-state to an empire.
Ensure that students can vieweither in print or onscreenthe. If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be broken. Divide the class into five groups. The importance of religion? You may access directly the information about the stele, which is also from the Louvre. Each will report back to the class what they have inferred about their assigned aspect of Babylonian civilization during the time of Hammurabi. In their presentations to the class, students should point to the specific precepts from which they derived their conclusions. World History Encyclopedia. Religion was central to everyday life in Babylonia. The World History Encyclopedia logo is a registered trademark. Hammurabi's code stipulates that: If a man's wife has been pointed out because of another man, even though she has not been caught with him, for her husband's sake she must plunge into the divine river. Finally, number two hundred twenty-eight shows the specificity of the precepts and implies that there was a set fee schedule for the work of skilled tradesmen, in this case a set fee of two shekels for each sar of building, comparable to modern builders who charge so much per square foot.
1764 BCEAttar-Aram syria, using a modified map originally made by Smhur. The historian Kriwaczek explains this, writing: Hammurabi's laws reflect the shock of an unprecedented social environment: the multi-ethnic, multi-tribal Babylonian world. Let the students know that some current books and websites still contain claims that Hammurabi's Code was the first set of laws ever made. NCSS.D2.His.14.6-8. At this point it is uncertain what exactly happened, but it seems that Sin-Muballit was compelled to abdicate in favor of his son Hammurabi. When the Elamites invaded the central plains of Mesopotamia from the east, Hammurabi allied himself with Larsa to defeat them.
Web. Without revealing anything more specific about the stele at this point, tell the students the original, though the only one in existence, is thought to be one of many. That accomplished, he broke the alliance and swiftly took the cities of Uruk and Isin, previously held by Larsa, by forming alliances with other city-states such as Nippur and Lagash. How has Hammurabi's Code influenced subsequent codes of law? Use questions generated about individuals and groups to analyze why they, and the developments they shaped, are seen as historically significant. None of Hammurabi's successors could put the kingdom back together again, and first the Hittites (in 1595 BCE), then the Kassites invaded. The complete text of Hammurabi's Code is available from the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource the Avalon Project. Tell the class we have quite a bit of information about this ancient stele, which you will share with them later, but, for now, you want them to consider the object itself. Vendettas and blood feuds must often have threatened the cohesion of the empire. (221). Rulers down through Napoleon Bonaparte issued their own codes to unite realms that contained people of many different customs and conceptions of justiceand to discourage them from taking the law into their own hands. In so doing, he ignored an inscription that cursed anyone who desecrated the shrine and entreated the gods to cut the offenders throat and annihilate his offspring. The IUCN also announced that sturgeon are in rapid decline, while tiger populations are stabilizing. They never served as a source of precedent when courts rendered decisions. In this activity, students will begin to hypothesize what may have influenced Hammurabi's reign in Babylonia. Social structure (class, gender, etc.) What kind of domestic improvements or policies did groups recommend?
What decided one's guilt or innocence, however, was the much older method of the Ordeal, in which an accused person was sentenced to perform a certain task (usually being thrown into a river or having to swim a certain distance across a river) and, if they succeeded, they were innocent and, if not, they were guilty. As a result of Hammurabi's expansion of the empire, Marduk also began to be considered the chief god of the entire traditional Mesopotamian pantheon. Ask students to point to parts of the code that reflect the following possible reasons for its creation, design, and placement: What other possible reasonsif anyfor the creation of Hammurabi's Code and its public display might be indicated by the text? (CC BY-SA), Law Code Tablet of King Hammurabi from Nippur, Cuneiform Tablet Listing the Names of Old Babylonian Kings. Ask the students to each write a one-sentence hypothesis as to the purpose of Hammurabi's Code. According to the second paragraph what is one supposed to do at one of these stele? Did any suggest improving the system of justice and/or law enforcement? As noted, he is best known in the modern day for his law code which is often cited as being the first in history although it is not. Please be respectful of copyright. The monumental size of Hammurabi's stele dramatized the king's power. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Begin by informing students that Hammurabi became the sixth ruler in the First Dynasty of Babylon in the 18th Century BCE. The precise intention behind the inscription on Hammurabi's Stela remains unclear.
Assess the extent to which Hammurabi's Code remained relevant beyond his death. Now the students can begin to form their own hypotheses about the purpose of Hammurabi's Code. Sign up for our free weekly email newsletter! Have them think about the following questions: Ask students to look carefully at the stele. Unlike Sargon the Great, however, whose multi-ethnic empire was continually torn by internecine strife, Hammurabi ruled over a kingdom whose people enjoyed relative peace following his conquest. Mark, Joshua J.. Who is likely to have ordered the creation, design, and placement of the stele? Think about large public objects with which students might be familiar, such as the statue of Lincoln at his memorial. (219). Each group will play the role of a council of advisors to King Hammurabi. Despite such inequities, the laws promulgated by Hammurabi offered some protection to women, commoners, and slaves. The vast kingdom Hammurabi had built during his lifetime began to fall apart within a year of his death, and those cities that had been part of vassal states secured their borders and announced their autonomy. Ancient Syro-Mesopotamia ca. From Mari, Hammurabi marched on Ashur and took the region of Assyria and finally Eshnunna (also conquered by damming up of the waters) so that, by 1755 BCE, he ruled all of Mesopotamia. He linked himself with great imperialists like Sargon by proclaiming himself the mighty king, king of Babylon, king of the Four Regions of the World, king of Sumer and Akkad, into whose power the god Bel has given over land and people, in whose hand he has placed the reins of government and, just like Sargon (and others), claimed his legitimate rule was ordained by the will of the gods. Ask students to point to a specific example. In the hypothetical speech below, Hammurabi invokes some of the Babylonian gods (Anu Bel, Shamash), as he does in his Code. (2018, April 16). Now, however, when urban citizens commonly rubbed shoulders with nomads following a completely different way of life, when speakers of several west Semitic Amurru languages, as well as others, were thrown together with uncomprehending Akkadians, confrontation must all too easily have spilled over into conflict. Other conquered cities were absorbed into the kingdom and then repaired and improved upon. Hammurabis dynasty lasted only a few generations before it toppled. Get streaming, digital, and print all in one subscription with Nat Geo Premium with Disney+. It is also found in the Hebrew Bible (Exodus 21:1819, 2225, Leviticus 24:1721) and in the Gospels (Matthew 5:38). Next, work through the following questions: In order to give the students a general overview of the pronouncements, ask the class to work on the following questions and tasks: Hammurabi's Code ends with an epilogue, a concluding statement. Prepare the students to read excerpts from the text of Hammurabi's Code by sharing the essay Law and Government from The Oriental Institute: The University of Chicago.