Code of Hammurabi er en af de tidligste og mest komplette lovsamlinger, oprettet af Babylon-kongen Hammurabi omkring 1754 f.Kr. Den består af 282 love, der regulerer alt fra familierelationer og handel til arbejdsforhold og straf, og reflekterer vigtigheden af retfærdighed i det mesopotamiske samfund.
Titel på undersøgelse:
The Code of Hammurabi: Foundations of Ancient Law and Justice
| |
Hele abstrakt på originalsprog:
The Avalon Project’s “Hammurabi’s Code of Laws” (circa 1750 BCE) offers a window into Mesopotamia’s post-Neolithic society, where agriculture’s rise had rooted civilization along the Euphrates. This Babylonian legal code, inscribed on a stele, reflects a complex, sedentary world built on farming surpluses—wheat, barley, and livestock—that enabled urban hubs like Babylon. Hammurabi’s 282 laws govern land, trade, and family, revealing a stratified society of rulers, farmers, and slaves, with irrigation and property central to disputes. Penalties, harsh yet structured (e.g., “eye for an eye”), aimed to stabilize this agrarian order, while references to grain and cattle underscore agriculture’s dominance. Unearthed in 1901, the code shows how Neolithic innovations—permanent settlement, surplus, and governance—crystallized into early statehood, a legacy of order amid the fertile chaos that reshaped human history.