When you entered my home here in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, you may not have heard of Hammurapi (or Hammurabi, as my name is also spelled) or my laws. Well, I can fix that.

My story begins a few thousand years ago in Mesopotamia, where you humans started what you call civilization. This meant that men and women settled into cities, increased their crop yields through irrigation, opened trade routes to distant lands, divided themselves into different occupations and invented writing to keep track of the whole experiment. But there was also lots of conflict. And people used weapons made of bronze, not stone like me. If humans were to survive such conflicts, stone would have to step up and lay down the law. It did, and I am the result.

The city’s fame would eventually have as much to do with culture as with conquest. Gifted in mathematics, astronomy and engineering, the Babylonians built with precision, devised complex calendars and used advanced mathematical concepts. Every time you calculate an angle or glance at a clock, you honor the Babylonians’ choice of 60 as their base unit of measure. At the same time as Hammurapi was leading his armies to victory, he cultivated the arts and sciences.

Near the end of Hammurapi’s reign, I made him more illustrious than ever. I, Pillar of Justice, crowned his achievements by publishing a set of laws to govern the lives of his quarrelsome subjects. I was not the first to try this, but my success speaks for itself. Thanks to me, the name of Hammurapi will forever be linked with the rule of law.

To get everyone’s attention, I knew I had to make a strong impression. I let the king polish me into a freestanding pillar called a stele, the ultimate message board of ancient Mesopotamia. I stand 2.25 meters (over 7 feet) tall, my rounded conical shape topped with an arresting bas-relief carved into my “face.” Enthroned on the right sits Shamash the sun-god, whose piercing light exposes crime. Menacing flames rise from his shoulders. Hammurapi stands on the left, receiving the deity’s instruction. He raises his right hand to his mouth, a sign of obedience. All Babylonians did the same whenever they saw the king. This scene put people in the correct frame of mind to receive the extraordinary words cut into the remaining surfaces of my body. Some 3800 lines of cuneiform cover me front and back.

There’s the code for all to see. And, look, there’s the god Shamash seated at top, and Hammurapi with his right hand to his mouth, showing he’s ready to obey the deity.

My first section honors Hammurapi, who enriched temples and cities, increased the harvest, pardoned enemies, protected slaves and, not least, established peace. Next comes the important part: a collection of at least 282 legal rulings, the bedrock of legal history. In these, I answer evil with punishment: “If anyone accuses another of a capital offense but fails to prove his case, then that accuser shall be put to death.” This judgment is among several that focus on giving false testimony. After all, any legal system is only as good as the evidence it allows. My text then turns to matters of theft, land holdings, loans, wages, family disputes, personal injury and professional misconduct. In other words, I tackle the many ills arising from the daily interactions among people.

Some of what I decree you moderns will find quite familiar, including my prohibition of kidnapping and slander. What may surprise you are my rules governing aspects of life no longer commonplace in your world. For example, I say much about oxen. What should be done if a person rents an ox and then somehow harms the animal? I also cover disputes arising when the ox itself does the hurting. My rulings here, however, hinge on whether the owner knew his ox was dangerous and took appropriate measures to protect the public.

My laws brim with decisions involving slaves and the rights of wives. I refuse to let a husband abandon an ill wife when he marries another. I protect both husbands and wives from debts incurred by their mates before marriage. I put few obstacles in the way of divorce, except for grave concerns about the fair division of property and the welfare of any small children.

What a day it was in December 1901 when Jacques de Morgan and his team found half the “Pillar of Justice.” And what luck they found the other half in early 1902.

My penalties for misconduct might astonish you. I execute thieves, liars, neglectful wives and tavern-keepers who do not arrest conspirators meeting in their establishments. I must point out that Mesopotamian civilization organized itself into three distinct classes, and that the punishments meted out differed accordingly. The awilum (upper class) fared better than the mushkenum (dependants and commoners), who in turn enjoyed many social and legal advantages over the wardum (slaves). Between Babylonians of equal rank, I followed the principle of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. But, if an awilum should blind the eye of a mushkenum, then the noble keeps his eye and instead pays a fine to his victim. Injuries to a wardum draw a fine payable to the slave-owner. I allow physicians to charge more for performing the same operation on an awilum than on patients of a lower class. But, botch the medical procedure on an awilum and the doctor loses the incompetent hand that held the scalpel. In some rulings, I may appear extreme. For example, when the builder’s shoddy work causes the death of a homeowner’s son, then I decree the death not of the builder but of the builder’s son in return. My discipline may seem hard as stone, but I set up a legal system for rich and poor, free and slave. I spelled out a person’s rights and responsibilities.

In the final section of my text I call down curses upon any who might dare to deface me. I warn that the sky-god Anu will destroy the scepter of any king who corrupts my words. I swear that Babylon’s great god Marduk will likewise bring him famine, that incorruptible Shamash will crush his troops, that Sin the moon-god will fill his shortened life with heavy sighs and sorrows, that the storm-god Adad will dry up the rivers and springs.

Illustrator Norman MacDonald wrote of this scene depicting the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in April 2003, as its members prosecuted Miroslav Tadic (fourth from left) for the crime of ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia: “To me there is little difference between the trial scene in Babylon and the one [here] in The Hague [in the Netherlands]. In each, there is the accused and the opportunity for defense. Then and Now are pretty much the same.”

Then, in December of 1901, one of my fragments emerged from the soil. A few weeks later, the other half came to light. A team of archeologists led by the Jacques de Morgan from France had found me. I, Pillar of Justice, was immediately hailed as the most complete code of ancient Mesopotamian laws ever discovered. And so, I came to live in the Louvre.

Now, the wrinkle has smoothed across your brow. You know my story. But, as you leave, do obey all the posted rules on your way out—NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY, DO NOT TOUCH THE ARTWORKS, NO FOOD OR DRINK IN THE GALLERIES—or else I might have to toss you into the Seine River in Paris!

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	Frank L. Holt (fholt@uh.edu) is a professor of history at the University of Houston and most recently author of Into the Land of Bones: Alexander the Great in Afghanistan. He is writing another book on ancient Afghanistan. This is his seventh article in the “I Witness History” series.
	Norman MacDonald (www.macdonaldart.net) is a Canadian free-lance artist. “To me there is little difference between the trial scene in Babylon and the one [above] in The Hague,” he says. “In each, there is the accused and the opportunity for defense. Then and Now are pretty much the same.”

 

STANDARDS

Teachers: This article and accompanying activities correlate to US national McREL standards  as follows:

• Understands environmental and cultural factors that shaped the development of Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indus Valley (e.g., development of religious and ethical belief systems and how they legitimized political and social order)
• Demonstrates competency in the general skills and strategies of the writing process
• Uses grammar and mechanical conventions in written composition
• Gathers and uses information for research purposes