What was the first written law code in history?
Hammurabi's 'eye for an eye' wasn't the first - it was beaten by three centuries.
The answer
While Hammurabi's Code (c. 1750 BCE) from Babylon is the most famous, the earliest known written law code is the Code of Ur-Nammu, dating to approximately 2100–2050 BCE from the Sumerian city of Ur in modern-day Iraq. Unlike Hammurabi's harsher 'eye for an eye' approach, the Code of Ur-Nammu favored monetary compensation for injuries. It covered issues like murder, robbery, assault, divorce, and agricultural disputes - showing that legal systems emerged remarkably early in human civilization.
Source: World History Encyclopedia
- law
- Mesopotamia
- ancient world
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