The Law Code Stele of King Hammurabi

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The Law Code Stele of King Hammurabi발음듣기

(smooth piano music) [Steve] We're in the Louvre, in Paris looking at one of their most famous objects.발음듣기

This is the Law Code Stele of King Hammurabi.발음듣기

[Beth] It's interesting to me that this is one of the most popular objects to look at here.발음듣기

And I think it's because of our modern interest and reliance on law as the founding principles of a civilization.발음듣기

And this is such an ancient object this is nearly 4,000 years old.발음듣기

[Steve] A stele is a tall carved object.발음듣기

This one is carved in relief at the top and then below that, and on all sides we have inscribed cuneiform.발음듣기

It's written in the language of Akkadian.발음듣기

[Beth] Which was used for official government decrees.발음듣기

[Steve] But that's the language.발음듣기

The script is cuneiform.발음듣기

It's divided into three parts.발음듣기

There's a prologue, which talks about the scene that's being represented at the top the Investiture of Hammurabi.발음듣기

What we see is the king on the left he's smaller, and he's facing the god, Shamash.발음듣기

This is the sun god, the god of justice.발음듣기

[Beth] And we can tell he's a god because of the special horned crown that he wears and the flames or light that emanate from his shoulders.발음듣기

[Steve] We can think of this as a kind of divine light, the way that in so much Christian imagery, we see a halo.발음듣기

[Beth] And we have that composite view that we often see in Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Near-Eastern art where the shoulders are frontal but the face is represented in profile.발음듣기

[Steve] Shamash sits on a throne and if you look closely you can see under his feet the representation of mountains that he rises from each day.발음듣기

He's giving to the king a scepter and a ring these are signs of power. - Hammurabi is demonstrating here that these are divine laws.발음듣기

[Steve] That his authority comes from Shamash.발음듣기

[Beth] So we have more than 300 laws here.발음듣기

[Steve] And they're very particular.발음듣기

Scholars believe that they weren't so much written by the king as listed from judgments that have already been meted out.발음듣기

[Beth] They're legal precedents, and they take the form of announcing an action and its consequences.발음듣기

So if you do X, Y is the consequence.발음듣기

[Steve] So, for example, if a man builds a house and the house falls on the owner the builder is put to death.발음듣기

So there's a kind of equivalence, and this might remind us of the Biblical law of, "An eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth."발음듣기

Which is also found on the stele, and it's important and interesting to note that the stele predates that Biblical text.발음듣기

The last part of the text, what is often referred to as the epilogue, speaks to the posterity of the king, of the importance of his rule.발음듣기

And the idea that he will be remembered for all time.발음듣기

[Beth] This is certainly not a unique stele in terms of recording laws, but it does survive largely intact.발음듣기

When it was discovered, it was broken only into three parts, which you can still see today.발음듣기

[Steve] These laws, almost 4,000 years old tell us a tremendous amount about Babylonian culture, about what was important to them.발음듣기

So many of these laws deal with agricultural issues of irrigation, and are clearly expressing points of tension in society.발음듣기

[Beth] A lot of them have to do with family life too, and the king is, after all responsible for the peace and prosperity and feeding of his people.발음듣기

And the stele is such a wonderful reminder that Mesopotamia was such an advanced culture.발음듣기

Here, almost 4,000 years ago, we have cities that are dependent on good crop yields that require laws to maintain civil society.발음듣기

And a reminder of the debt that the world owes to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and the area that is seeing so much conflict now. (smooth piano music)발음듣기

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