The Oldest Known Law Code Is Nearly 4,000 Years Old

While the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi is famous for its eye for an eye (Review) justice, an even older legal document reveals a surprisingly different approach. Discovered on cuneiform tablets in modern-day Iraq, the Code of Ur-Nammu was established in the Sumerian city of Ur around three centuries before Hammurabi's reign. The prologue to the code states its purpose was to protect the weak from the powerful, establishing justice and social order in the land. It provides a fascinating window into one of humanity's first attempts to govern a complex society with a standardized set of written rules.

Unlike the later principle of physical retribution, Ur-Nammu's laws largely prescribed monetary compensation for offenses. If a man knocked out another's tooth, he didn't lose his own but instead paid a fine of two shekels of silver. The code set specific payments for various bodily injuries and also laid out laws concerning marriage, divorce, accusations of sorcery, and property rights. These laws show a sophisticated effort to maintain social harmony not through vengeance, but through a structured system of restorative justice, demonstrating that early legal thought was far more nuanced than is often assumed.