Middle Assyrian Laws

Historical source page 2

AN. ASSYRIAN LAW CODE Mokris Jastrow, Jr. University op Pennsylvania I Twenty years ago, the French expedition excavating at Susa under the direction of M. Jacques de Morgan discovered the magnificent diorite block — about eight feet high — containing on its two sides the famous Babylonian Code of the Babylonian king Hammurabi (2123-2081 B. C.) which since its first publication by Professor Vincent Scheil 1 has been the subject of constant study by Assyriologists as well as by students of the history of law. 8 The discovery of this code in almost perfect condition — except for some columns intentionally polished off by the vandal Elam- itic conqueror 3 who carried the Code as a trophy of war from Babylon to Susa and had no doubt intended writing an inscrip- tion glorifying himself on the erased portion 4 — was heralded at the time as one of the most important contributions to our knowledge of social conditions and of legal practice in Babylonia during the second millennium B. C. What Hammurabi did was to codify existing laws and to prescribe methods of judicial proce- 1 Memoires de la Delegation en Perse, Vol. 4 (Paris 1902). 2 Despite the subsequent translations into English and German by Johns, Harper, Rogers, Winckler, Peiser, Muller, Ungnad and others, a new transla- tion, embodying the results of detailed investigations, correcting erroneous readings, filling up gaps and giving a more accurate rendering of the legal phraseology, is very much needed. New fragments of the Code on clay tablets are constantly turning up. So since the publication by Ungnad in 1909, of the 'Stele' text and of many Babylonian and Assyrian fragments on clay tablets (Keilschrifttexte der Gesetze Hammurabis), a large tablet found at Nippur has been published by Poebel, Historical and Grammatical Texts (Uni- versity of Pennsylvania Museum — Babylonian Section, Vol. 5, Philadelphia 1914), No. 93, a fragment by Clay in Miscellaneous Inscriptions in the Yale Babylonian Collection (New Haven, 1915), No. 34, and four fragments by Schroeder in his Keilschrifttexte aus Assur Verschiedenen Inhalts (Leipzig 1920), Nos. 7 and 190-192. 8 The gap can be partially filled out by fragments of copies of the Code on clay tablets. 1 The conqueror of Babylonia who carried off the trophy was probably Sutruk-Nahunte, c. 1100 B. C. l JAOS 41