The Code of Hammurabi

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the laws that Hammurabi (c1810 - c1750 BC), King of Babylon, had carved into a black basalt pillar in present day Iraq and which, since its rediscovery in 1901 in present day Iran, has affirmed Hammurabi’s reputation as one of the first great lawmakers. Visitors to the Louvre in Paris can see it on display with almost 300 rules in cuneiform, covering anything from ‘an eye for an eye’ to how to handle murder, divorce, witchcraft, false accusations and more. The Code of Hammurabi, as it became known, made such an impression in Mesopotamia that it was copied and shared for a millennium after his death and, since its reemergence, Hammurabi and his Code have been commemorated in the US Capitol and the International Court of Justice.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Professor Martin Worthington 2 episodes
  Professor in Middle Eastern Studies at Trinity College Dublin
• Frances Reynolds 2 episodes
  Shillito Fellow and Associate Professor of Assyriology at the University of Oxford
• Selena Wisnom No other episodes
  Lecturer in the Heritage of the Middle East at the University of Leicester

Reading list

• Mesopotamia: Ancient Art and Architecture
  Zainab Bahrani (Thames and Hudson, 2017) Google Books →
• Hammurabi of Babylon
  Dominique Charpin (I.B. Tauris, 2021) Google Books →
• The Royal City of Susa: Ancient Near Eastern Treasures from the Louvre
  Prudence O. Harper, Joan Aruz and Francoise Tallon (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992) Google Books →
• Languages of Iraq, Ancient and Modern
  J. Nicholas Postgate (ed.) (British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2007) Google Books →
• Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor
  Martha T. Roth (Scholars Press, 1997) Google Books →
• King Hammurabi of Babylon: A Biography
  Marc Van De Mieroop (Wiley, 2005) Google Books →
• A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000-323 BC
  Marc Van De Mieroop (Wiley-Blackwell, 2006) Google Books →
• The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History
  Selena Wisnom (Allen Lane, 2025) Google Books →
• Complete Babylonian: A Comprehensive Guide to Reading and Understanding Babylonian with Original Texts
  Martin Worthington (Teach Yourself Library, 2012) Google Books →

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Programme ID: m002r4v1

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002r4v1

Auto-category: 340.5 (Law of ancient and medieval world)