Code of Ur-Nammu, the oldest surviving law code

Date

c. 2100 BCE

Category

Politics & governance

Region

Mesopotamia (Iraq)

Era

Ancient Civilizations

Significance

Issued in the name of Ur-Nammu, founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, or possibly promulgated by his son Shulgi, the Code of Ur-Nammu is the oldest extant written law code known, predating the Code of Hammurabi by roughly three centuries.

Its surviving ~57 clauses are framed in casuistic 'if...then...' form and prescribe fixed monetary compensation for many bodily injuries rather than the later 'eye for an eye' principle of physical retaliation. A prologue presents the king as a divinely sanctioned guarantor of justice who protects the orphan, the widow and the poor against the powerful, establishing a rhetoric of royal responsibility for social equity that recurs in later Mesopotamian codes. The text influenced subsequent collections including the Laws of Eshnunna and Lipit-Ishtar, and through them the broader legal tradition of the ancient Near East.

Empires active in c. 2100 BCE

• Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (Oxus Civilization)
  2250 BCE to 1700 BCE
• Indus Valley (Harappan) Civilization
  2600 BCE to 1900 BCE
• Elamite Kingdom
  2700 BCE to 539 BCE

Related politics & governance events

• Sargon of Akkad founds the world's first empire
  c. 2334 BCE
• Code of Hammurabi inscribed on the basalt stele
  c. 1755 BCE
• Mentuhotep II reunifies Egypt and founds the Middle Kingdom
  c. 2040 BCE
• Building of the First Palace at Knossos
  c. 1900 BCE
• Senusret III's Nubian campaigns and administrative centralisation
  c. 1850 BCE
• Reforms of Urukagina of Lagash
  c. 2350 BCE

Further reading

The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction

The wider story

The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction

Amanda H. Podany

Concise, expert intro to Mesopotamia, Persia and the Near East before Alexander.

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