1. The Code of Hammurabi

2. Why have laws??? Imagine this country: Total freedom No job required
No education required
No rulers
Nothing is against the law

3. No laws = danger and chaos!!!

4. I. King Hammurabi (1792 BC-1750BC)
Enacts one of the earliest law codes to govern society

5. What makes a law good?

6. What do these laws tell us about Mesopotamia?
Let’s find out what other principles the Code of Hammurabi was based on. Directions:
Use your table groups
Read each scenario on the “Code of Hammurabi WS” and decide what you think a government should do to each person
Write down what your group thinks should be the law
Leave the actual “Code of Hammurabi” line blank – we will go over that together

7. What should be done with a nun who enters a bar to drink?
If a "sister of god" (nun) enters a wine shop for a drink, they shall burn that woman.

8. 2. What should be done to a man who can’t pay his debts?
If a man be in debt and is unable to pay his creditors, he shall sell his wife, son, or daughter.

9. 3. What should be done to a wife who doesn’t take care of the house and belittles her husband?
If the woman has not been careful but has gadded about, neglecting her house and belittling her husband, they shall throw that woman into the water.

10. 4. What should happen to a boy who slaps his father?
4. If a son strikes his father, they shall cut off his hand.

11. 5. If one man accuses another of a crime, how can you tell who is telling the truth?
If any one bring an accusation against a man, the accused shall leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty…

12. 6. What should happen to a man who breaks the bone of an aristocrat
6. What should happen to a man who breaks the bone of an aristocrat? Of a commoner? Of a slave?
breaks aristocrat - his bone broken
breaks commoner - pays one mina of silver
breaks slave – pay half the slave’s value

13. 7. If a doctor makes a mistake that kills a patient, what should happen to him?
If a physician make a large incision with the operating knife, and kill him, or open a tumor with the operating knife, and cut out the eye, his hands shall be cut off.

14. 8. If a builder makes a bad house that collapses and kills the owner’s son, what should happen to the builder?
If a builder build a house for some one, and does not construct it properly, and it kills the son of the owner the son of that builder shall be put to death

15. 9. If someone steals some gold from a church, what should happen to him? What should happen to a person who buys the gold from the thief?
 If any one steal the property of a temple or of the court, he shall be put to death, and also the one who receives the stolen thing from him shall be put to death.

16. 10. What should happen to someone who breaks into a house to steal a TV?
If any one break a hole into a house (break in to steal), he shall be put to death before that hole and be buried.

17. 11. If you leave your Xbox at your friends house, and thieves steal it from him, what should happen to your friend?
If any one place his property with another for safe keeping, and the property of the other man be stolen by thieves, the owner of the house, through whose neglect the loss took place, shall compensate the owner for all that was given to him.

18. 12. What should happen to a woman who goes off to be with another man after her husband was made a prisoner of war?
If a man is taken prisoner in war, and there is sustenance in his house, but his wife leave her house to be with another man, she shall be judicially condemned and thrown into the water.

19. 13. If a husband abandons his wife, and she finds another man
13. If a husband abandons his wife, and she finds another man. If the husband returns, should the wife have to go back to him?
If a man abandons his wife, and she leaves his house to be with another man, and her husband return, she does not have to return to her husband.

20. Process Log
Write a paragraph answer to 1 of the following: 1. What do the laws tell you about how families operated in Mesopotamia? 2. What is the biggest difference between the Code of Hammurabi and laws today? Format: 1st Sentence - Answer the question. 2nd-5th Sentences – Support your answer with 2-3 facts. Explain how your facts support the answer.