Compare And Contrast The Code Of Hammurabi

The civilizations that flourished in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Palestine were located in river valleys or along the Mediterranean coast. These civilizations developed highly complex cultures that shared many common characteristics.

In 1754 B.C., Hammurabi conquered and united all the cities of Mesopotamia under his rule. Although he was a brutal warrior, his greatest achievement was his code of laws, which he had engraved on a towering stone monument. Hammurabi’s Code was not the first, but it was the most complete set of laws that has survived. It is important because it created a set of rules that helped to govern a civilization while trying to protect people even if they had little political power. It called for different punishments based on the class of the lawbreaker and the victim of the crime. In the Code, punishments often fit the crime by demanding and “eye for and eye” or a “tooth for a tooth”. Hammurabi ordered his collection of laws to be written to promote the welfare of the

people. It influenced the civilizations that followed because it decreased the amount of wrong or crime.
The Hebrews in ancient Mesopotamia were one of the first groups to practice monotheism, the worship of only one God.

The Hebrews recorded their history and laws in the Hebrew Bible, which tells the story of God meeting Moses on a mountain. God gave Moses a set of laws called the Ten Commandments. These laws gave rules for how the Hebrews were to treat both God and other men. In the Ten Commandments the people were commanded to worship only one god, being monotheistic.

Sumerians created cuneiform script over 5000 years ago. It was the world's first written language. Sumerians invented this writing system to keep track of business dealings because they traded with people who lived in lands that were hundreds and even thousands of miles away. Writing was a giant leap forward in the development of civilization. People kept records and new ideas were now able to be passed easily from generation to generation. Cuneiform was written on clay tablets, and then baked hard in a

kiln.
Egyptian kings in the Old Kingdom are best known for the huge structures they built, pyramids. These large stone buildings served as houses or tombs for the dead kings. In order to build pyramids the Egyptians needed to learn the specialized skills of mathematics, geometry, engineering, and architecture. We know about the pharaohs of ancient Egypt because of the written records that were left. These records were kept in hieroglyphics, a system of writing that was based on pictures. Unlike Sumerian cuneiform writing, hieroglyphics represented ideas or objects but could also stand for sounds. They could be carved into clay or stone but could also be written onto papyrus, the first paper which was developed by the Egyptians which made it easier to keep records.