The Punishment In Mesopotamian Civilization

Think for a second about a world without civilization, without laws. I bet you don't know who developed civilization! The Mesopotamians did, they also created lots of amazing inventions! Some of these civilizations also developed in China and Egypt. Ancient Mesopotamia. Two contributions from the Mesopotamian Civilization were the invitation of the cuneiform and Hammurabi’s Code.

In Ancient Mesopotamia women were lower on the social class the men so if they were caught in adultery with another man then she will be be binded and cast into water( Law 129, Doc C). This is just towards the man because this was a sign of weakness and he would struggle to provide for the family while having a wife that disrespects him. You may think that this punishment goes against Hammurabi’s epilogue when he says ,”the strong might not injure the weak, in order to protect the widows and orphans,”(Doc B) but the lady knows her place on the social order and she should know to never perform adultery. Another important law that was inscribed on Hammurabi’s stone stele was that,” If a son has struck his father, his hands shall hands.”

I also notice that punishments were often more severe on women along with poor and less on rich people. I believe the law code was actually in favor to wealthy citizens. This being said, we can understand that social inequality as well as injustice was present in Ancient Mesopotamia. Consequently, the working class together with the slaves couldn’t do anything about this unfortunate situation and had to live with it or be punished or even killed for questioning the King’s

Sometimes in our generation, people take for granted the things the originally invented by ancient civilizations. Somewhere around 3500 B.C. in southwest Asia the first of the River Valley Civilizations were born. The ancient River Valley Civilizations of Egypt, China, and Mesopotamia all made key contributions to future societies. (OI) Two contributions from each of the Mesopotamian Civilizations that influenced future civilizations.

Hammurabi’s code comes with punishments and rewards, these punishments and rewards make Hammurabi’s code unjust and just. Bases on the documents, Hammurabi’s code offers harsh punishments for mistakes, and nicer rewards. This essay will examine the punishments of Hammurabi’s code, as well as the rewards, and decide whether to not it is just. Now let’s start a new adventure into Hammurabi’s code.

Although Egypt and Mesopotamia were both early agricultural societies built upon the water provided by the major rivers which sustained them, they exhibited important differences as a consequence of the different physical environments in which they developed. In this paper I will first focus on what I consider to be the major aspects of these differences in environment and then explore the consequences of these differences in their religious beliefs, political organization and commercial practices.

When comparing cultures it would be difficult to find two that are more diverse than the Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures. The Mesopotamian culture was filled with tension and instability while the Egyptian people maintained a stable and somewhat more content way of life. In examining these two cultures one can surmise that these differences are mainly due to the political, economic, social, religious, and geographic differences between Egypt and Mesopotamia. These factors added to the overall mentality of the people. These mentalities affected the stability of each culture, whether for the better or worse.

Mesopotamians laws showed incredibly bad inequality between men and women. If a man's slave women speaks insolently to her, her mouth shall be scoured with one quart of salt (Ur-Nammu). It specifies to not honor a slave girl in your house (Akkadian). The father in Akkadian was basically saying slave girl as something that is worse than saying slave. If a man strike a free-born woman so that she lose her unborn child, he shall pay ten shekels for her loss (Hammurabi’s Code). That man should be sacrificed because he basically killed a

The Egyptian and Mesopotamian religion and society were similar, but their government system was different. The religions in Egypt and Mesopotamia were similar because both were polytheistic, had beliefs of an afterlife, as well as priests who were part of the upper levels of the social hierarchy. Social similarities between Egypt and Mesopotamia included: rigid social structure, dependence on slavery, and authoritative religious structure. However, the system of government was different because Egyptian society was governed by a theocratic monarchy, while Mesopotamia was ruled by a traditional monarchy.

The Code of Hammurabi is the most fascinating and useful source on Ancient Babylonian culture and justice. The intricately carved cuneiform record of a legal code is evocative of Hammurabi and his authoritarian style of leadership, and indicative of how important his legacy was to him. It also reveals that the kingdom under his rule had an organised society, with a rigid class-structure. This code was no mere theoretical exercise, but a series of practical laws that extended to shaping the society’s way of life.

The Babylonian definition of justice was a harsh and especially a burden on the accuser and judges. For example, the laws clearly state that not only is there a burden on the accused but also on the accuser should they be unable to prove their case. For instance, the penalty for homicide states that “if a man has made allegations against another man, and he has laid a charge of homicide against him but is unable to substantiate his guilt, the one who made the allegations against him shall be killed.” ( ) Hammurabi ruled a vast empire and would not have been able to rule on every case himself. () notes that in the king’s absence, a committee of men from the communities involved could act as a judge in Hammurabi’s place. The penalties for a judge

After reading The Code of Assura, it is a reliable source of women’s lives during this time. The law has a clear understanding that they honored their wives as queens and protected them from death, rape, and abuse from their husbands. In I.9 stated “If a man brings his hand against the wife of a man, treating her like a little child, and they prove it against him, and convict him, one of his fingers they shall cut off. If he kisses her, his lower lip with blade of an axe they shall draw drown and they shall cut off (The Code of the Assura, c. 1075 BCE).” The law made it very clear that men can’t abuse and belittle their wives. Even though men created the code, I really could tell that everyone was punished equal, not based off gender

Family structure does not tie in well with the Babylonians. The Code of Hamuriabi, law number 210: “If the woman die, his daughter shall be put to death,” shows the lack of appeasement by a traditional family structure. There are several laws like this one that basically undermining the women and simply give the man full control of what he owns. in a way this could be viewed as a sexist culture which it clearly proves to be just by the exhibition of its law. Today, laws like those do not directly exist, but there is still a constant undermining of women.

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.

Capital punishment dates back to 18th century B.C. in the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon. Under this code twenty five crimes, excluding murder, were punishable by death. In historical data, the first death penalty was imposed to offender who was blamed for magic in 16th century BC Egypt (Regio, 1997). Unfortunately, death penalty is still practiced in some countries. For example, in Egypt recently on 24 March 2014, Minya Criminal Court imposed death penalty to 529 followers of Egyptian ex-president Mohamed Morsi for their participation in violence (Amnesty International, 2014). Nowadays, United States also practices capital punishment. According to the fact sheet of DPIC (2014) 20 criminals from different states were executed this year