Cuneiform law

Cuneiform law refers to the ancient laws and legal codes written in cuneiform, a writing system used in Mesopotamia and other parts of the Middle East. Cuneiform was developed by the Sumerians about 3500 BCE and is regarded as the world’s oldest writing system. The first known law code was written about four thousand years ago by a ruler known as Ur-Nammu. However, the most famous set of ancient laws was written centuries later by the Babylonian king Hammurabi. These ancient laws varied in their specifics, but most followed a standard format declaring that their author, the king, was acting under the ultimate authority of the gods. The laws themselves typically took the form of a list of crimes and their respective punishments. While many of the punishments may seem harsh by modern standards, some of the ancient codes included provisions to ensure fair trials and granted women some rights many ancient cultures did not.

Background

The first human civilization developed about 3500 BCE in Sumer, an area in southern Mesopotamia near the Persian Gulf. Mesopotamia refers to a region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that corresponds to modern-day Iraq and Kuwait and parts of Iran, Turkey, and Syria. Mesopotamia was never a unified area but was composed of numerous city-states that each had its own culture, customs, and laws. These various cultures were tied together by a belief in similar deities and a common system of writing. At times, various city-states rose to control larger sections of Mesopotamia, forming a series of empires. For example, the Babylonian Empire was ruled from the city of Babylon, the Assyrian empire from the city of Ashur, and the Akkadian Empire from the city of Akkad.

The common writing system used in ancient Mesopotamia was cuneiform, which was first invented by the Sumerians. Cuneiform is a wedge-shaped writing system that was made by pressing a tool called a stylus into a tablet of soft clay. Early cuneiform was typically in pictograph form, a type of writing in which a symbol represents a specific object. Later writing used logograms, in which a symbol represents a word, or phonograms, in which a symbol represents a syllable. Cuneiform itself was not a language but was used to record information in the various languages of Mesopotamia. It was used from about 3500 BCE to 75 BCE by cultures such as the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Elamites, Hurrians, Kassites, and Hittites. Because few common citizens of the ancient world could read and write, cuneiform was mostly used for business transactions, religious texts, government records, and laws.

Overview

The remains of clay tablets unearthed from about 2350 BCE hint that the Sumerian king Urukagina had written a form of legal code, but the actual code itself has never been found by archaeologists. The oldest surviving laws to have been discovered were believed to have been written by King Ur-Nammu, who ruled from the Sumerian city of Ur from 2047–2030 BCE. Only parts of the code have been recovered, but those pieces illustrate a style that would be used as the template for almost all future Mesopotamian legal writings.

Ur-Nammu’s code consists of about forty paragraphs, each listing a specific crime followed by an accompanying punishment. Ur-Nammu’s laws were not as strict as those of later rulers. Several crimes were punishable by a death sentence, among them murder, robbery, and adultery when committed by a woman. However, the punishment for most offenses was a fine to be paid in silver. For example, if a man broke another man’s arm with a club, he would have to pay one mina of silver, which is the modern equivalent of about 1.25 pounds (0.57 kilograms) of silver. Another legal code written by the Sumerian king Lipit-Ishtar about 1870 BCE adopted a similar style.

The most complete ancient Mesopotamian legal code ever discovered is also the most famous. Known as the Code of Hammurabi, the set of 282 laws is written on a 7.4 foot (2.25 meter) tall black stone pillar that was discovered in 1901 in modern-day Iran. The pillar was not originally from the region but was believed to have been transported there sometime in the twelfth century CE. The laws were written by King Hammurabi who ruled the Babylonian Empire from 1792–1750 BCE. Ancient records claim that Hammurabi was a king who cared for his people and was known as the “builder of the land.” The top of the pillar shows an image of Hammurabi being given divine authority by the sun god Shamash. This is followed by a prologue written in cuneiform in which the king attests that the gods have given him the right to protect the land and rule over the people.

Below that is a list of laws and punishments that are in some cases much harsher than earlier versions, and in others, more progressive for their time. The laws encompass subjects ranging from property rights, divorce, adoption, murder, injury, and trade disputes. Its most often noted law is the edict whereby “if a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.” This “eye for an eye” mentality is noticeably different than for a man who committed the same crime under Ur-Nammu, where the punishment was a half mina of silver. For some crimes, the law called for specific deaths. For example, if a woman and her lover conspired to kill her husband, both would be impaled. Yet, if a priestess were to enter a tavern for a drink, she would be burned to death.

Still, other laws took different approaches toward justice. People who accused others of crimes were expected to provide proof of their claims or risk punishment themselves. If a man wished to divorce his wife with whom he had children, he was to give her money and property to support the children. After the children had grown, she was free to marry anyone she wished. Women who were neglected by their husbands were allowed to return home to their fathers with no penalty if they could prove their mistreatment. Women who were found to have mistreated their husbands were drowned.

While later empires followed similar outlines for their legal codes, the severity of their punishments varied greatly. The Hittites, who ruled an area in modern-day Turkey in about 1400 BCE, were far more lenient than the Babylonians. However, the Assyrians, whose empire was founded about 911 BCE, had more brutal forms of punishment in which the death penalty and amputations were more common.

Bibliography

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