- 23 Jun 2016 06:36
#14694604
About 500 years after Sargon The Great, in approximately the same location in Mesopotamia, there reigned a king named Hammurabi, to circa 1750 BCE. We know of him both from various king lists discovered by archaeologists and also from the famous stele which at the top of it shows a carved image of him standing next to a seated god, and containing below this a list of 282 laws.
The laws list crimes and punishments, there is no allowance made for mitigation and extenuation, but there is a presumption of innocence and a provision for providing evidence by both parties to the trial. It is written in Akkadian, the language of Sargon. The punishments are harsh and could result in death, mutilation or disfigurement, or requiring some other fine or recompense.
The copy of the stele that we have today (there would have been several made anciently) in the Louvre in Paris was originally found by the ancient Persians in Babylonia and then removed to Susa. There it stayed preserved until rediscovered in the early 1900's and then moved to Paris.
The portrait of Hammurabi on the stele shows a muscular man with a long beard and clothed in a draped linen robe wearing a rigid helmet or crown of some kind. The seated god before whom he stands is also muscular and bearded and is wearing a pleated robe and felt cap. The god gesticulates as though instructing Hammurabi. Beams of light radiate from the shoulders of the god.
The laws list crimes and punishments, there is no allowance made for mitigation and extenuation, but there is a presumption of innocence and a provision for providing evidence by both parties to the trial. It is written in Akkadian, the language of Sargon. The punishments are harsh and could result in death, mutilation or disfigurement, or requiring some other fine or recompense.
The copy of the stele that we have today (there would have been several made anciently) in the Louvre in Paris was originally found by the ancient Persians in Babylonia and then removed to Susa. There it stayed preserved until rediscovered in the early 1900's and then moved to Paris.
The portrait of Hammurabi on the stele shows a muscular man with a long beard and clothed in a draped linen robe wearing a rigid helmet or crown of some kind. The seated god before whom he stands is also muscular and bearded and is wearing a pleated robe and felt cap. The god gesticulates as though instructing Hammurabi. Beams of light radiate from the shoulders of the god.