Civilization: The Code Of Hammurabi

The foundation of a good civilization is based upon many different elements. Each element has an important part in our growth in life. But the three most important elements that makes a good civilization are the writing system, the surplus of food and government.

What makes food important to a good civilization today? Well if you went up to someone and asked why is food so important to us they’re probably going to say “well we have to have something that gives us energy and a way to live.” And If you were thinking of something else of why food is not good element to this civilization think again and if you still think it’s not, you’re wrong. The reason why food is very important to us is because, food gives us energy and it’s the reason

why we are here today. Let’s go all the back into the past; Stone Age everyone has learned or heard about it but you may or may not heard that in the Paleolithic period about 2.0 million years ago was actually when the humans started to eat. These people didn’t quite eat like we did, they eat berries, beans, and peanuts. You’re probably asking “where’s the point of this Paleolithic period?” or “Yeah so... that’s not really important.” Ummm….. Yeah it is. If those people didn’t did start eating in that period we probably wouldn’t be here today; they’re the reason why we’re here today. Food is the main energy for us, this is what makes us healthy, it helps your mental functions, prevent illness and certain types of food holds many vitamins, reduces risk of cancer, heart diseases and etc. This is what keeps us going and what makes us live life longer and stronger. Now let’s go a little bit more into the future, the Neolithic period. Around 10-4,000 years ago surplus of food, towns, cities, and the government started because the agriculture thrived.

Government is another important element to have for a good civilization. Most people today still question “why do we need government?” or “Who ever started government is the most stupidest thing that they ever did!” If you ask me government was the best thing that we have even today. Without the government we would be an anarchy, government mediates disputes between people, provides basic services like roads, education and national security and enforces laws to discourage wrongdoing from being committed. All of these would not exist in a true anarchy. Government is about leadership. Leadership comes in different forms and I would say it’s safe to say that we have always had some kind of form of leadership. Indians had their leaders, kingdoms had their King and Queens. Let’s say if today we stop having government, our lives would be one giant mess, crimes would be uncontrollable, nobody telling us what we are doing is right and wrong, and a lot of things would be destroyed; that’s what a lot of people did and this is why we formed a government in the Civilization.

One civilization, called Mesopotamia, was established between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now the nation of Iraq.

The capital of this civilization was the city of Babylon. To keep peace among people living so closely together, they needed rules. King Hammurabi, who ruled around 2000 BCE, drew up the first recorded set of laws. The Code of Hammurabi, as these laws were called, set down harsh penalties for those who broke the laws like, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” You might question why and how did they come up with that type of code? That’s a good question! The creation of “the Code” was a tremendous achievement for not only Babylonian society but for the entire Mesopotamian region as King Hammurabi was ruler over all of that area. Its conception can be considered to be the first culmination of the laws of different regions into a single, logical text. Hammurabi wanted to be an efficient ruler and realized that this could be achieved through the use of a common set of laws which applied to all territories and all citizens who fell under his rule. But how and where did put these codes at? This is when the writing system came

along.

The writing system is third most important element in the civilization.

A civilization without any written language would be at a loss. Its ability to communicate and record anything because before man could speak they wrote words down to communicate. Writing is important for civilization because it helps us do things we need everyday, like It helps us create business transactions, It helps us write treaty's, It helps us choose what foods to eat, It helps us give directions. Communicate with others without writing would be no solid form of communication. This impact is in two ways: 1. The ability to accurately record history. That is, to know for sure exactly what someone said or did. This is critically important for passing down knowledge between generations, as it allows for the accumulation of more knowledge than could possibly be kept via oral histories. 2. The impact of this is that writing allows for a system society with a much larger gain of knowledge base than otherwise possible. What we see as technology is really predicated on a foundation of writing. Writing allows for the accurate description of an idea, and one which does not depend on all carriers of that written idea to understand even a little of that idea. Most importantly, writing is required for specialization of a society like, in order to have farmers, merchants, political bureaucrats, soldiers, etc, one must haves in writing. Otherwise, everyone is a hunter-gatherer or farmer. Why was writing so

important in the early civilizations? It was important because that’s how people communicated is their language by writing with symbols and words. The civilization that developed a system of writing using hieroglyphs is the Egyptian civilization. They were very advanced with their writing system.