Describe hammurabis code and explain why it was unusual at the time it was established?

Answer 1

I do hope everyone can tell that Oscar's explanation is a joke (and so intended, I hope).

Also, rsps1 has copied from a 1915 article, which was good for it's time... but we've learned since then that much we thought was mistaken..

Actually, many of the popular claims for Hammurabi's "Law Code", and even what you find in many general textbooks, are uncertain or outright mistaken.. based on the state of scholarship in the early 20th century, before many other documents and facts came to light.
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In fact, this "code" was NOT all that unusual in HIS time, as we'll see below.

It WAS important in the centuries after Hammurabi, at least for 'student' use (something scholars studied). And it is important to US for what it shows us of views and practice of justice in the ancient Near East, having survived in more detail than similar materials that preceded it.

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In popular thought the 18th century BC "Code of Hammurabi" (written in the Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian, the Semitic language of ancient Mesopotamia) is regarded the oldest "law code".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi

But in fact it was one of several early "cuneiform law codes" and related forms. We know of at least four earlier works under Sumerian kings in Mesopotamia. [Note that the dates are disputed, but the relative order is not.]

2350 BC - the "Reforms" of Urukagina of Lagash (correcting abuses)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urukagina
http://ragz-international.com/reforms_of_urukagina.htm

2050 BC - Ur-Nammu (Shulgi) of Ur
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur-Nammu

1900 BC - Lipit-Ishtar of Isin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipit-Ishtar

1800 BC - Laws of Eshnunna [the city name]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eshnunna

There is some debate about how we should understand Urukagina's "reforms". They do not quite lay out a new "system", so some might give the honor to Ur-Nammu's "first known legal 'CODE'"

(I know wikipedia's not always the most reliable, but these specific articles are solid, and accessible. The best stuff on these things seems still to be all in books and obscure journal articles, many of them not in English. I'll look for further links)
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Along the same lines, it is commonly thought that the principle called the "lex talionis" [='law of retaliation'], long known from the Hebrew Bible's "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth", originated with Hammurabi's "Code." The idea (often misunderstood as being about 'getting revenge') is that the punishment should be in proportion to the crime, not less (letting someone off the hook), and especially, not MORE (letting vengeance run wild), as so often took place

Now it seems to contain the first clear expression of this principle --and at least applies it to people of the same social rank. But it is not applied consistently throughout (in particular, offenses against one of a higher or lower social class may be treated very differently). And, more importantly, we CANNOT say that it ORIGINATED here... much less that the Old Testament got it from Hammurabi.

We CAN still say that it contains the earliest KNOWN (that is, surviving) expression of the principle.
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In fact, there is a major problem with the whole "law code" label. It does not seem to be a very accurate description of the true the function of these inscriptions, especially for the "Code" of Hammurabi. This 'code' was inscribed on a black stele, NOT as a formal document for judges, et.al. to consult. Rather we discover in the inscription's prologue and epilogue that Hammurabi was bragging to his gods, portraying himself as a good king and "shepherd" of his people, an ideal king of justice. It was originally set up in a TEMPLE (not in a public square for people to see). The other "codes" give evidence of a similar structure and purpose.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammurabi
http://eawc.evansville.edu/anthology/hammurabi.htm

Further, all these sets of laws seem to function more as EXAMPLES, not as a detailed "system.". At times they may be more like the ancient proverb collections -- a set of decisions collected as general examples of how decisions should be made... and how the existing "system" sould work. . (This would also explain the fact that laws within one set may seem to contradict each other.)

Nonetheless, they DO reveal much about the legal 'principles' and how decisions were made in ancient Mesopotamia. (The picture is even fuller when we take into account the many surviving records of contracts and court decisions.) Beyond that they are valuable in their portrayal of the IDEAL of the king as dispenser of justice, 'shepherd' of his people and defender of the weak (esp.. of the widow and orphan).

see also: "The Development Of Ancient Mesopotamian Law"
http://www.gmalivuk.com/otherstuff/fall02/danking.htm

Answer 2

~Contrary to popular opinion, Hammurabi did not write the code. During his vision quest in the Sahara, he experienced a "divine" revelation. Actually, he was dying of thirst and halucinating when the Bedouin camel herder, Mahlamutt, came upon him at Abu Gobolieen oasis. Mahlamutt was a devotee of the Abysinian goddess Zachoe. He nursed Hammurabi back to some semblance of coherence and the two of them traveled back to Babylon. Along the way, they stopped at the Kasbaha a Vinzhetti, then a busy caravan rendezvous, where they visited the temple of Goobleskeera. While Mahlamutt prayed, Hammurabi met with the fahkirs and after a brief discussion, decided to stay on. He spent 17 months at Vinzhetti and learned the ways of Goobleskeera. The Code of Hammurabi is essentially a Babylonian interpretation of the Goobleskeeran protocols and Hammurabi only made a few changes to meet the needs of his fledgling kingdom.

Answer 3

[B]y far the most remarkable of the Hammurabi records is his code of laws, the earliest-known example of a ruler proclaiming publicly to his people an entire body of laws, arranged in orderly groups, so that all men might read and know what was required of them. The code was carved upon a black stone monument, eight feet high, and clearly intended to be reared in public view. This noted stone was found in the year 1901, not in Babylon, but in a city of the Persian mountains, to which some later conqueror must have carried it in triumph. It begins and ends with addresses to the gods. Even a law code was in those days regarded as a subject for prayer, though the prayers here are chiefly cursings of whoever shall neglect or destroy the law.
The code then regulates in clear and definite strokes the organization of society. The judge who blunders in a law case is to be expelled from his judgeship forever, and heavily fined. The witness who testifies falsely is to be slain. Indeed, all the heavier crimes are made punishable with death. Even if a man builds a house badly, and it falls and kills the owner, the builder is to be slain. If the owner's son was killed, then the builder's son is slain. We can see where the Hebrews learned their law of "an eye for an eye." These grim retaliatory punishments take no note of excuses or explanations, but only of the fact--with one striking exception. An accused person was allowed to cast himself into "the river," the Euphrates. Apparently the art of swimming was unknown; for if the current bore him to the shore alive he was declared innocent, if he drowned he was guilty. So we learn that faith in the justice of the ruling gods was already firmly, though somewhat childishly, established in the minds of men.
Yet even with this earliest set of laws, as with most things Babylonian, we find ourselves dealing with the end of things rather than the beginnings. Hammurabi's code was not really the earliest. The preceding sets of laws have disappeared, but we have found several traces of them, and Hammurabi's own code clearly implies their existence. He is but reorganizing a legal system long established.

Answer 4

Because it formalized the ethics of being a physician... about things you see when you enter someones house and how, if you can't make the patient better, then at least you do no harm..

That was a revolutionary concept when Physicians were practicing Astrologists and all surgery was done by the Barber

Answer 5

It was the first historical recording of a society's laws.