Ancient Mesopotamia

The Mesopotamian culture had three group of people live in that area. Each group kept marriage, social class, and religion important. The three groups are Sumerians than Akkadians and next Babylonians.The sumerians build ziggurats which are religious and they also wrote a prayer for every god. The Akkadians had a ruler Sargon and wrote a law code Ur-nammu. A father in the time periods between Akkadians and Babylonians, a father wrote advice to his son about had to live and rules. The babylonians wrote a different law code called hammurabi code. Each of these things show that marriage, social class, and religion is important.

The “Code of Hammurabi” is considered to be one of the most valuable finds of human existence. In fact its very existence created the basis for the justice system we have come to rely on today. 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. This paper will discuss the Hammurabi Code and the

The Mesopotamian people valued a strict, rules-oriented society. This can be seen by examining the Mesopotamian social classes, government and job specialization. In The Code of Hammurabi, created by the King of Babylon in 1780 B.C.E. it was evident that there were rules for every thing, and every thing you do has a consequence. The Mesopotamian life style was very rigid; this lifestyle can lead to disputes and outbreaks, which can have negative consequences in society.

Ancient societies’ life practices such as Mesopotamia and Egypt are depicted in The Code of Hammurabi translated by Theophile J. Meek and in The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead translated by R. Faulkner. The King of Babylon, Hammurabi himself in 1700 BCE, wrote The Code of Hammurabi containing severe two hundred and eighty two law codes that the whole society was to follow. Similarly to law codes, The Egyptian Book of the Dead was used in the New Kingdom that is around 1550 BCE to around 50 BCE, it also served as a platform way of life emphasizing on the afterlife rather than the present as in The Code of Hammurabi. Both The Code of Hammurabi and The Egyptian Book of the Dead display the consequences of living a just or unjust life in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. Although, while in The Code of Hammurabi punishments varied concurring to your social status, unlike in Egypt, where the granting of an afterlife was attainable for all. Ultimately, in both civilizations consequences would arise accordingly on how the masses lived their daily lives, but both The Code of Hammurabi and The Egyptian Book of the Dead provides us with insight on how a each respective society was kept in order.

The Law Code of Hammurabi is a native Babylonian text that served as the basic law code of society. The way of life was of the former Babylonians culture is totally different than what we are used to today. The text gives readers a vision of how ancient societies lived in these times. This law code gave society a diverse arrangement for citizens to follow. The social structure isn’t about wealth, they are judged by different standards (such as trial by ordeal). The husband is the dominant role of the house. The family structure is a patriarchal household and the power of the father is absolute. The Law Code of Hammurabi gives readers a clear thought of how unfair the earlier civilization of Babylonians existed through class structures, gender relations, and family structures.

Throughout time many civilizations and societies have come and gone. Every one of them was unique in their own way and had a different way of governing themselves. In this paper, I will be focusing on Hammurabi’s Code. Hammurabi’s Code is a series of laws that governed the Babylonian society back, when they were created, in 1780 BCE. The code was wrote by Hammurabi himself, back when he ruled the Empire of Babylon. The text itself explains why the code was created and why Hammurabi was chosen to write the code. The code then lists, in an organized fashion, all the rules that the society is to follow and what the punishments are if the rules are broken. Every rule is very specific about what is to happen if the rule has to be enforced. Hammurabi’s Code gives us an idea of how the justice system worked in the Babylonian society, how men and women in the society were treated, and how the religion was followed.

Mesopotamia was a decentralized civilization, and resulted with many rulers leading the many city-states within the empire. Due to the many wars occurring within, kings were originally war leaders, and the function of defense and war, including leadership of a trained army, remained vital. Due to being many rulers within the empire, there were many internal conflicts, let alone the outside ones, which resulted in Mesopotamia further advanced its empire by developing ideas for a bureaucracy and laws, by using Hammurabi’s code. It laid down the procedure for law courts and regulated property rights and duties of family members, setting harsh punishments for crimes. This focus on standardizing a legal system was one of the features of early civilization. Also, the political structure there was enforced by none other than the Sumerians, which can be seen in many similar ideas and traits passed on today’s modern

The Hammurabi’s code provided laws and punishments that were applicable based in the gender, and social status. There were three social classes in Mesopotamia, nobility, free citizens, and the lowest that was the slaves. In the first one you can find the kings, and priests. In the second were landlords, merchants, soldiers, artisans, and farmers. In the other hand, the structure of the family was men (father), son, woman (mother), and daughter been the male gender the most powerful in the household.

By illustrating how for various classes there were manifold punishments, it explains hierarchy of the Mesopotamian society. Pointed social classes in the Code are: bondslaves, peasants, commoners of humble origins, craftsmen, and aristocracy. The punishments given for different social classes were saying sorry, paying a fine, beating, and removing different parts of bodies. Punishments gotten by the people who were counted as a low class were harder compared to the upper classes. For instance, “If a seignior has broken another seignior’s bone, they shall break his bone.

Hammurabi’s code was not the first in regard to law codes but was the most complete including “an extensive prologue, 282 laws,” and an epilogue (Roth). Hammurabi’s laws were based on the principle of retribution, which addressed their dislike of over retaliation. Despite their clear emphasis of just punishment, “an eye for an eye,” consequences did vary between the classes. In extent, this idea of fair play would suggest that ancient Mesopotamian society was advanced in the sense that moral compasses were being developed. Also, Mesopotamian economy would have to be thriving in order for a people to begin constructing laws to promote a finer quality of living.

Upon reading articles and texts concerning Hammurabi’s Code of law, I made a connection between its context and the class hierarchy of early Babylonian civilizations. The structure of the code of law parallels the expectation or rights of those in the different class levels. There are standards that each may be held to, and deviations of those standards have differing penalties for the different classes of peoples.

The Hammurabi’s code has influenced history ever since the civilization of Babylonia. Its iconic words, an eye for an eye, are known by people all over the world. Throughout the code, the two hundred eighty two laws give a look into Babylon, and the economy, society, and religion. From the document our group was able to see a little into each of these components of the Babylonian civilization. Although the Hammurabi’s Code is a good source for the Babylonian economy, it lacks extensive insight on the society and religion of Babylon.

The Code of Hammurabi is an important document in the evolution of Mesopotamia’s government of the people because it created rules of law that applied to everyone living in the kingdom. Although the Code promoted justice, it was not a document that granted equality for those who lived in Mesopotamia. Code 8 is an example of preferential treatment for the upper classes because it states that anyone who steals an animal, specifically a cow, sheep, an ass, a pig, or a goat which belongs to a person of high social ranking must pay a fee of thirtyfold. However, the code says that if the animals belongs to a freed man, he shall only pay tenfold. This code promotes inequality of the people of Mesopotamia. Despite a social ranking, the fee that

The social classes were divided into four classes. There were the priests and the kings, the upper class, the lower class, and the slaves. The priests were important and told everyone how to behave and make god happy. The priests wrote about the religion and things about god. The king ruled areas of Mesopotamia.

Civilizations began focusing on ceramic pottery, iron, and other materials. This type of craftsmanship help discover new ways for collaborating with the construction of cylinder-shaped stone seals. The seals were inscribed with descriptions and they bowled over wet clay to make reprints. A more well-educated civilization existing within the Mesopotamian boundaries was the Sumerians. For several centuries’ Sumerian law, literature, art, science, and religion were the Mesopotamians primary performs. The inscription system known as Cuneiform was the Sumerian language vital development made by the civilization. During the Neopalatial period the Minoan trade networks stretched across the eastern Mediterranean and their influence was widespread throughout