Hammurabi First Class

v Classes

Ø The law seems to recognize three, defined as

§ Free born

§ Freed

§ Slave

Ø The Britannica article recognizes three, defined as

§ Amelu: Patrician? Includes artisans

§ Muskinu: Landless man?

§ Ardu: Slave

Ø The Britannica isn’t limited to the code—lots of other surviving material.

v Making sense of quantities, prices, etc.

Ø Problems

§ Different units

· Mina

· Shekels

· Gerah

· Gur of corn

· Ka of corn

§ Units of weight used as money

· Mina of gold

· Mina of silver

· Mina of money???

· Mina

· Shekel, Gerah similarly

Ø Solutions:

§ Web search which tells us

· Mina about a pound—surviving weights!

· 60 shekels to the mina

· 20 Gerah to the shekel, at least in Israel

· gur = aprox 300 liters

· sar = 36 square meters

· gold about 12 times the value of silver by weight

§ Internal consistency

· Some wages are given in gur of corn/year, some in gerah/day

¨ So you can calculate a conversion between them

¨ Assuming how many days people work

¨ And from that to shekels

· Hire of oxen, cart and driver is 180 ka of corn/day

¨ Ox for threshing 20 ka

¨ cart alone is 40 ka

¨ so driver is 100 ka/day

Ø if we assume two oxen

Ø and assume that oxen for threshing cost the same rental as oxen to draw a cart—which may be wrong

¨ 60 ka/day if four oxen, other assumptions the same

¨ which should be around 60-100 shekels/year, the ordinary wage rate suggested from other sources

· fines in mina and closely related fines in shekels

¨ striking the body of another

Ø 1 gold mina for freeborn striking body of another free born of equal rank

Ø 10 shekels if freed man strikes the body of another freed man

Ø so shekel must be gold shekel, makes it 1/3 instead of 1/36 the amount.

¨ Strike a woman, she loses the child

Ø 10 shekels if a free born woman

Ø 5 shekels if freed

· fines in mina of gold and closely related fines in mina

¨ Accidental death from injury in a quarrel, free born, 1/2 mina

¨ Putting out the eye of a freed man, 1 gold mina

¨ Suggests that “mina” means gold

¨ Goring ox kills a free born man, 1/2 mina in money

¨ Suggests that that also means gold.

§ Conclusion:

· Mina is always gold unless specified as silver

· Ditto for shekel

Ø Wages?

§ 1 calculation suggests 60-100 shekels/year, but …

§ A boat with displacement of 20 tons only two shekels to build?

§ Hire of a boat about a shekel a week!

§ Serious injury (eye or fracture) of a freed man 60 shekels—fits.

§ Negligently killing a free born man, 30 shekels—too low.

§ Strikes a woman, she loses her child, 5-10 shekels.

§ If she dies, 20-30 shekels

§ Physician heals a fracture, 2-5 shekels, operation 2-10 shekels

· Depending on rank of patient

· Risk of losing his hands if he kills or blinds the patient

· Or having to replace patient if a slave (or half if lost an eye)

Ø Value of life

§ For upper class, eye for an eye for serious offenses

§ Fines start at 1 mina for freed, 1/2 mina for free born woman

v Analyzing the code

Ø Sort it into criminal, tort, property, family, etc.

Ø Try to make sense of each

Ø Recognizing that our classification may not fit theirs very well.

v Criminal

Ø Death penalty for lots of things

§ Ensnare but not proof—some sort of false accusation

§ Bring a capital accusation but not prove it

§ Steal the property of temple or court—or receive the stolen property

· But steal cattle, sheep, ass, pig or goat

¨ from god or court, pay thirty fold

¨ ten fold if a freed man of the king (?)

¨ death if he can’t pay

§ merchant who sells stolen property

§ or possessor if he can’t prove he bought it from a merchant

§ or putative owner, if he can’t prove he owned it!

§ Buying something from someone’s son or slave without witness or contract, a thief, capital

§ Stealing a minor son

§ Taking someone else’s slave (court or freed man) outside the city gates

§ Harboring such a slave

§ Breaking into a house

§ Caught committing a robbery.

Ø Trial by ordeal—leap into the river.

Ø Accuser gets the fine!

Ø Judge who is culpably wrong pays 12 times the fine, is fired