Anna Paraschac
World Religions IX - 3
Ms. Fillion
02/10/2023
Continuity Displayed in the Code of Hammurabi In 1901, an ancient stele written thousands of years ago was excavated from Susa, containing one of the earliest legal codes to ever be found. In the ancient world of Babylonia, the Code of Hammurabi was created around 1780 BCE (Editors of McGill), written by the Babylonian king Hammurabi. The legal code consisted of 282 rules that set fines and punishments according to the requirements of Justice. The code was especially infamous for having punishments vary based on your social class. Before the Babylonians, the Sumerians inhabited Mesopotamia. Much of Babylonian culture was influenced by the Sumerians and their great achievements. Although the Code of Hammurabi was somewhat innovative in that it introduced the idea of lex talionis, the notion of a law of retaliation in which punishment matches the crime, it primarily represented continuity from previous legal systems and religious concepts that had been in place since the
…show more content…
The city state of Sumer existed around 4500 BCE to 4000 BCE (History.com editors). One of the most crucial parts of their legal system was the Code of Ur-Nammu, which later influenced the Code of Hammurabi. This code “was composed three centuries before the Code of Hammurabi '' by King ur-Nammu and dealt with injuries and sexual offenses (Editors of The Code of Hammurabi). The legal code consisted of “[p]unishments [that] took the form of fines” (Mark, Joshua J). This code set rules that if broken, resulted in fines. This law code was also crucial to the Sumerians’ legal system and “in turn, served as a model for the Code of Hammurabi” (Mark, Joshua J). Many aspects of the Code of Ur-Nammu helped create and influence other legal systems following the Sumerians, as we will see in the Code of