Code of Hammurabi
The 282-law Babylonian code from c. 1754 BCE — the most famous (though not the earliest) written legal code, inscribed on a black basalt stele now in the Louvre.
Origin
Hammurabi, the sixth king of Babylon, had his laws carved onto a seven-foot stele topped by a relief of the king receiving the laws from Shamash, god of justice. The 282 provisions cover everything from contract disputes and surgical malpractice to slavery and family law, sorted roughly by social class — penalties for harming a nobleman were heavier than for harming a commoner. The famous principle of lex talionis ('an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth') appears in the code, predating the same formula in the Hebrew Bible by several centuries. The stele was looted to Elam in antiquity, dug up by French archaeologists at Susa in 1901, and has lived in the Louvre ever since. Older codes exist — Ur-Nammu's, c. 2100 BCE — but Hammurabi's is longer, better preserved, and far more famous.
Modern usage
The default reference for 'oldest written law,' even though it isn't quite the oldest. Cited in textbooks, courtroom opinions, and any general-knowledge piece about the origins of justice; a relief of Hammurabi appears among the lawgivers on the US Supreme Court chamber frieze, next to Moses. 'Hammurabi's code' is shorthand for primitive-but-systematic retributive justice, and the phrase 'eye for an eye' usually traces back to it in popular memory.
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