|The Code of Hammurabi Activity
Below are some of the laws from Hammurabi’s Code.
You will be divided into twelve groups.
Each group will be assigned two laws to analyze and answer questions about.
You will then be responsible for share what you found to the class (get ready to present!)
Code 188: If a freeman brings false testimony in a case that carries the death sentence, he shall be put to death.
Code 189: If a physician operates on a freeman for a severe wound and causes the man’s death, his fingers shall be cut off.
Code 229: If a builder builds a house for a man and does not make its construction sound, and the house which he has built collapses and causes the death of the owner of the house, the builder shall be put to death.
230 If it kill the son of the owner the son of that builder shall be put to death.
Code 117: If a man be in debt and is unable to pay his creditors, he shall sell his wife, son, or daughter, or bind them over to service. For three years they shall work in the houses of their purchaser or master; in the fourth year they shall be given their freedom.
Code 108: If bad characters gather in the house of a wine seller and she does not arrest those characters and bring them to the palace, that wine seller shall be put to death.
Code 143: 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.
Code 145: If a woman wishes to divorce her husband and the records show that she has been careful and is not at fault, she may take her dowry and go to her father’s house without any blame.
Code 185: If a man takes in his own home a young boy as a son and rears him, one may not bring claim for that adopted son.
Code 195: If a son strikes his father, they shall cut off his hand.
Code 196: If a freeman wants to disinherit his son but the judges find the son has done no grave wrong, the father may not disinherit the son.
Code 200 If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out.
Code 196 If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.
Code 2: If any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and 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, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser.
Code 21 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.
Code 22 If any one is committing a robbery and is caught, then he shall be put to death.
Code 23 If the robber is not caught, then shall he who was robbed claim under oath the amount of his loss; then shall the community, and . . . on whose ground and territory and in whose domain it was compensate him for the goods stolen.
Code 25 If fire break out in a house, and some one who comes to put it out cast his eye upon the property of the owner of the house, and take the property of the master of the house, he shall be thrown into that self-same fire.
Code 209. If a man has struck a free woman with child, and has caused her to miscarry, he shall pay ten shekels for her miscarriage.
Code 210. If that woman die, his daughter shall be killed.
Code 235. If a boatman has built a boat for a man, and has not made his work sound, and in that same year that boat is sent on a voyage and suffers damage, the boatman shall rebuild that boat, and, at his own expense, shall make it strong, or shall give a strong boat to the owner.
Code 236. If a man has let his boat to a boatman, and the boatman has been careless and the boat has been sunk or lost, the boatman shall restore a boat to the owner.