The Code of Hammurabi

Complete English translation with a running parallel transliteration of the original ideograms of The Code of Hammurabi, the longest surviving legal text from the Old Babylonian period The Code of Hammurabi is a collection of laws proscribed by Hammurabi, the sixth King of the First Dynasty of Babylon, and reigned from approximately 1792 BC to 1750 BC. These were inscribed on cuneiform tablets towards the end of his reign and discovered on the acropolis of Susa in 1901 by the Egyptologist Gustav Jéquier. The code consists of 282 case laws carved in forty-nine columns on a basalt stele. The code encompasses commercial, criminal and civil law. This edition contains a complete English translation of the code with a running parallel transliteration of the original ideograms. All corrections and erasures are included. This edition also includes facsimiles of all of the original cuneiform tablets, a thorough glossary and index of subjects, lists of proper names and tables of weights and currencies. Robert Francis Harper [1864-1914] was Professor of the Semitic Languages and Literatures in the University of Chicago, Director of the Babylonian Section of the Oriental Exploration Fund of the University of Chicago, Managing Editor of The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. CONTENTS Frontispiece Preface Introduction Transliteration and Translation Index of Subjects List of Proper Names Glossary Photograph of Text Autographed Text List of Signs List of Numerals List of Scribal Errors List of Erasures Map of Babylonia