The Hammurabi code and the Sinaitic legislation / with a complete translation of the great Babylonian inscription discovered at Susa, by Chilperic Edwards.

  • Hammurabi, King of Babylonia.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Hammurabi code and the Sinaitic legislation / with a complete translation of the great Babylonian inscription discovered at Susa, by Chilperic Edwards. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    such conjectures on one side, however, it can hardly be disputed that the Laws themselves manifest their specifically Babylonian origin. They contemplate a country with a numerous settled population, where the art of writing is in common use, where agriculture is asso- ciated with irrigation upon a large scale, and where ships and navigation play an important part. These points are combined in no other ancient Semitic land ; they can only be referred to Babylonia. Mere questions of dynasty are consequently irrelevant. The legislation is only intelligible as a product of Babylonian soil; and as Babylonian culture was of ancient date, and was entirely derived from the still earlier civilisation of the Akka- dians, who themselves appear to have had codes of law (see Appendix C), it seems quite unnecessary to insist upon the obvious fact that Babylonian jurisprudence is prior to all other Semitic law or custom of which we have any certain knowledge. It will, further, be observed that the ensuing