Browse > Material > 'Plaster' > Artifact

Cast of the Laws of Hammurabi

1792 BC - 1750 BC
Plaster
Original Site Unknown
225 cm x 67 cm x 46 cm
C478

Oriental Institute Museum
(Original in the Musee du Louvre, Paris)

Artifact Description

Cast of the Laws of Hammurabi

This is a plaster cast (or reproduction) of an original stela (made of diorite) in the collection of the Musee du Louvre, Paris. The original stela was one of several copies of the laws produced during the reign of King Hammurabi of Babylon (1792-1750 BC). It is inscribed in cuneiform with a prologue, almost 300 laws (or legal verdicts), and an epilogue. Above the laws is a relief that shows Hammurabi receiving the "rod and ring," traditional emblems of kingship, from the sun god, Shamash.

Multimedia

The Laws of Hammurabi
This stela upon which the Laws of Hammurabi are inscribed ranks as one of the most important historical documents ever discovered.

The Laws of Hammurabi
What are the Laws of Hammurabi? Find out in this video featuring Oriental Institute Assyriologist Dr. Martha Roth.

Compare Laws from Ancient Mesopotamia to Laws of Today
What similarities are there between the laws we use today and the Laws of Hammurabi? Find out in this video featuring Oriental Institute Assyriologist Dr. Martha Roth.

Suggested Readings

Constitutional Rights Foundation. Of Codes and Crowns: The Development of Law. Law and World History series. Los Angeles: Constitutional Rights Foundation, 1983.

Roaf, Michael. Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. New York: Facts on File, 1990.

Roth, Martha. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995.

View related artifacts