The Harsh Hammurabi Code

Hammurabi Class Rules?

• If you are called upon

and don’t answer

within 5 seconds…

• If you are caught

chatting when you

should be

participating…

• Then…

Then…….

I am the first King, and I

set the laws in stone!!

Why might a king set

such harsh laws?

What??

When??

Which??

Where do you think the statue

now lives?

The stone may look smooth, but it is not!!

These are the first (ever maybe) written laws.

Hammurabi was the first king of the

Babylonian Empire, reigning from 1792

B.C. – 1750 B.C. During his time in

power, he conquered Sumer and Akkad,

amassing those cultures for his

territory.

The laws were strict and

absolute. Hammurabi’s Code

was carved into a large slab

of stone of black basalt

(known as a stela) and

displayed publicly. Thus, no

citizen or slave could claim

he was not aware of a

certain law or infraction.

This stela, which stood 8

feet high, was discovered in

1901 in Elam (now SW Iran).

Sedimentary

Metamorphic

Igneous

Sedimentary layered

accumulations of

sediments-fragments

of rocks, minerals, or

animal or plant

material.

Example: Sandstone

Metamorphic Intense pressure

transforms sed. rocks

into denser, more

compact rocks.

Example: Marble

Igneous formed from melted

rock that has cooled

and solidified.

Does not weather

easily.

Example: Basalt

If a man destroy the eye of another

man, they shall destroy his eye. If

one break a man's bone, they shall

break his bone. If one destroy the

eye of a freeman or break the bone

of a freeman he shall pay one mana

of silver. If one destroy the eye of a

man's slave or break a bone of a

man's slave he shall pay one-half

his price. If a man knock out a tooth

of a man of his own rank, they shall

knock out his tooth. If one knock

out a tooth of a freeman, he shall

pay one-third mana of silver.

If a son strike his father,

they shall cut off his

fingers.

If a 'sister of a god'

[nun] open a tavern,

or enter a tavern to

drink, then shall

this woman be

burned to death.

If any one bring an

accusation of any

crime before the

elders, and does not

prove what he has

charged, he shall, if it

be a capital offense

charged, be put to

death.

If any one steal cattle or

sheep, or a pig or a goat, if it

belong to a god or to the

court, the thief shall pay

thirtyfold therefor; if they

belonged to a freed man of

the king he shall pay tenfold; if

the thief has nothing with

which to pay he shall be put to

death.

If the slave of a freed man strike the

body of a freed man, his ear shall be cut

off.

If a freed man strike the body

of another freed man, he shall

pay ten shekels in money.

If any one strike the body of a

man higher in rank than he,

he shall receive sixty blows

with an ox-whip in public.

If a man strike a free-born woman so that she

lose her unborn child, he shall pay ten

shekels for her loss.

If the woman die, his daughter shall be put to

death.