Hammurabi’s Code - the Fertile Crescent

Nobody really considers what life would be like if Hammurabi didn’t develop a written set of laws or how we would get clothes and resources from exotic lands if trade wasn’t created. What if Phoenicians didn’t develop their alphabet? We would’ve had to learn complexity of cuneiform, an old Sumerian language. The code of Hammurabi, trade and writing are all important elements that make up the Fertile Crescent.

Hammurabi’s Code was an organized list of code that helped people remember what was expected of them and what type of punishment they would receive if they broke a law. Hammurabi was the king of Babylonia (from about 1792 to 1750 B.C.) He had set down rules for everyone in his empire to follow. These set of rules are also known as Hammurabi’s Code. The code was based somewhat on earlier Sumerian codes. Hammurabi’s Code contained 282 laws organized in different categories. These categories were trade, labor, property, and family. The code also had laws for adopting children , practicing medicine , hiring wagons or boats, and domesticating treacherous animals. Hammurabi’s Code was based on the idea of “ an eye for an eye.” That is to say that punishment should be similar to the crime committed. Sadly, the code did not apply equally to everyone. The cruelty of the punishment was based on how important the victim and the lawbreaker were. The higher the social class of the victim , the greater the penalty. For example if the victim was a slave, the owner would pay only one third of a mina. Someone who accidentally broke the law was just as guilty as someone who meant to break the law. Anyone who couldn’t control the outcome of their task, such as doctors or surgeons, had to be extremely careful.These laws were important to the people of the Fertile Crescent and to us because it gave them law and order. They are important to us now because they were the first set of written laws found. Although archaeologists have shown they Hammurabi’s laws were not the first , they are the first organized recorded set that we have discovered so far. Equally so, trade was also important to the fertile crescent.

Writing helped the ancient people of the Fertile crescent record documents, events in history, social issues, and many more. Writing was first developed in Mesopotamia around 3100 B.C. Long before King Hammurabi created his code, the people of Sumer had created a system of writing. Before the Sumerians invented writing, they used shaped pieces of clay as tokens, or symbols. By 3100 B.C., this form of record keeping had developed into writing. They used these clay token to keep records. At first, the written words were symbols that represented certain objects. For instance, grain, oxen, water, or stars were written symbols. But as people learned to record ideas as well as facts, the symbols changed into cuneiform. Cuneiform was combined symbols to make groups of wedges and lines. This form of script could be used to represent different languages. Writing meant that the people of Sumer now had a way to keep records. Record Keepers were extremely important people in Sumer. Since only a few very skilled people could write, it was one of the most valuable skill in the ancient world! Because of this scribes , or people who are professional writers, held positions of great respect throughout Mesopotamia. Scribes in Sumer recorded sales and taxes, tax payments, gifts for the gods, and marriages and deaths. Few scribes had special tasks. The military scribes calculated the amount of food and supplies that an army would need. There were also government scribes who figured out the number of diggers needed to build a canal. However, none of these documents were written on paper, for paper had not yet been invented. Instead, the scribes of Mesopotamia held their notes and records on clay