What kind of code is code of hammurabi?

Code of hammurabi is a collection of laws promulgated by King Hammurabi of Babylon. Because the original code is engraved on a big black basalt stone pillar, it is also called "stone pillar method". The code is engraved with cuneiform characters, which is the earliest written code in the world. This code fully reflects the situation of ancient Babylonian society and has high historical research value. While studying it, we find that behind it, there are many fogs that people need to solve.

Unexpected codex190165438+In February, France and Iran formed a joint archaeological team to excavate the ancient city of Susa in southwest Iran. On this day, archaeologists discovered a piece of black basalt, and a few days later, they discovered two other pieces. Put the three pieces together, it happens to be an oval cylindrical stone tablet. This stone tablet is 2.25m high, with a circumference of1.9m at the bottom and1.65m at the top. The upper part of the stone tablet is a relief, and the lower part is an inscription engraved with typical Babylonian cuneiform. Historians and archaeologists have come to the conclusion after careful textual research that this is the code of hammurabi that people have heard of but never witnessed.

Code of hammurabi is a famous code promulgated by Hammurabi, the sixth king of Babylon. As we all know, the Kingdom of Babylon is located on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, which is roughly equivalent to today's Iraq. If this code is "real", how did it get to Susa? It turns out that more than 3,000 years ago BC, in the Susa Basin southwest of Disfuer, Iran today, there was a powerful slavery kingdom-Elam Kingdom, and the ancient city of Susa was the capital of Elam Kingdom. After Elam captured Babylon by war, they moved the stone pillars engraved with code of hammurabi back to Susa as trophies. Later, after the kingdom of Elam was destroyed by Persia, Darius, king of the Persian Empire, came to power and set Susa as the capital of the Persian Empire. Therefore, this stone pillar code was found in the ancient city of Susa.

The reasons for the promulgation of the Code are questionable. In the era of Hammurabi, a set of written codes was promulgated, which was a pioneering work. However, why should such a code be promulgated? Could it be a whim of Hammurabi?

Regarding the promulgation of the code, some people think that it was promulgated by the Kingdom of Babylon in order to safeguard the unequal social hierarchy and the interests of slave owners and nobles. Because Hammurabi is a very talented king, he is diligent in state affairs and is busy with everything. With the expansion of the territory, Hammurabi, as the "king of power and the king of all directions", has to deal with a large number of appeal cases every day. So, he ordered some old legal provisions to be collected, combined with the habits that have been formed in society, compiled into codes and carved on stone pillars for the subjects to admire and learn.

Others believe that it is the product of the special natural environment of the Kingdom of Babylon. Because the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flood every year, together with the snow in zagros mountains and taurus mountains, they often cause disastrous floods and destroy farmland. What is even more frightening is that the time and quantity of floods are unpredictable. Therefore, in order to alleviate the insecurity hanging over their hearts, people in the two river basins turned to various methods, such as liver-cutting divination and astrology. Codification is also one of its means, and code of hammurabi is the most outstanding one.

Others think that Hammurabi made a code and wrote it on a stone tablet just to publicize his majesty. Because the upper part of the oval stele unearthed in the ancient city is a beautiful relief, in which Shamash, the sun god worshipped by the ancient Babylonians, sat on the throne, while the king of the ancient Babylonian kingdom stood in front of him respectfully. At this moment, the sun god is awarding the king a medal symbolizing imperial power. The king wears a traditional crown, looks solemn, raises his hand and takes an oath, all of which show the ancient concept of theocracy.

The mystery of polished characters "code of hammurabi" was discovered, and archaeologists found that seven lines of characters on the front of the cylinder were polished, which left archaeologists with a historical problem. According to historical records, after King Elam's Su truck invaded Babylonia in BC 1 150, he felt that he had made extraordinary achievements, and no one knew it after his death, so he planned to engrave his achievements on the front of this huge cylindrical stone tablet.

However, when King Elam destroyed the handwriting on it, he didn't carve new words, perhaps because he didn't have time to carve new words soon after his death, or for other reasons, which is unknown. This mystery still puzzles many archaeologists and historical researchers. However, it seems that the promulgation of code of hammurabi is actually more like an amulet of slave owners' rule and a tool of their class oppression.

The code of Hammurabi