Hammurabi Dbq

At the beginning of recorded history, writing was mainly used by societies to keep track of crops and trade transactions. However, as civilization progressed, writing had taken on a life of its own, with it uses evolving from keeping records to literature and law. Law codes at the time were few and far between, it wasn’t until King Hammurabi set laws for the Old Babylonian Empire were they etched into stone. Multiple empires in the region with kings also considered god-like, Hammurabi exalted himself above others and said that he was sent to Earth by their storm-god Marduk and it was said that he shall banish evil-doers, bring righteousness, and further mankind.

This document details not only criminal law but laws that define marriage, divorce

and slave holdings. The law code also reveals a socio-economic class prejudice favoring the rich, and it blatantly shows how the ancients viewed slaves and slavery. For example, if a free-man kills a slave, then the free-man must pay the master one-third of the slave’s worth. Another example of prejudice is a law that states that if a slave should bring false accusations against a noble or free person, then they shall be put to death. The document also shows how family life and the law where intertwined. One rule states that if a son shall strike his father, that the son’s hands shall be cut off; another rule declared that if your wife is struck with disease, and you wish to seek another wife, you may but your first wife must stay in your home and you shall support her for the rest of her life. There is also a law that declares that if a man wished to divorce form his wife, then he shall provide her with a garden and money to rear her children, and then once the children are grown the wife may marry a man of her choosing. What all these laws reveal about the Ancient Near East is that kings were gods, and that any decrees, or edicts were binding and this was how people ran their lives.
Some rules have remained to this day, but others have simply fallen out of use. For example, if one were to bring false accusations in the Old Babylonian Empire, it was punishable by death, but now in modern times one can simply sue the accuser. Another law, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, is actually found in the Hammurabi’s law code and in Bible; in the book of Matthew chapter 5 verse 38 coincides with this law. During the slave-holding period of America’s history, laws stated that it is illegal to harbor or take a runaway slave from their master, and there was severe punishment for both free and slave. Modern-day punishments for crimes such as kidnapping, robbery, and home invasion have long terms in prison, opposite of that of the Ancient near East, where the punishments for these same crimes were death. A monarch or government has not instituted such codes that address marriage, divorce and dowries now, but rather such laws have evolved as societal customs or norms. For example, in ancient times women were likened to property and had no say in who married, with few exceptions. However, the social norm in modern-day society is women get to marry whomever they choose, with those few exceptions of traditional countries still having dowries and arranged marriages.
With law etched into stone, life in the Old Babylonian Empire and the surrounding regions was dictated by law and god-kings, and favored the noble elite, while serving unjust punishments to the poor and enslaved. Some laws have survived to this day, but with the punishment rather imprisonment than death. This document also reveals how ancient peoples and the law code were intricately connected; just like modern-day, life is connected and dictated by law.