Code of Hammurabi
Overview
A 2.25 meter diorite stela inscribed around 1754 BCE with 282 laws of Babylonian king Hammurabi, the longest surviving legal text from the ancient Near East. The top shows Hammurabi receiving the laws from the sun god Shamash. Excavated at Susa in 1901, it fixed wages, rents, penalties, and set the principle of proportional punishment.
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