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Code of Hammurabi

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Code of Hammurabi
Jahaira Alicea

Code of Hammurabi

In Mesopotamia around 1750 B.C. citizens followed a stern law code that consisted of 282 laws called The Code of Hammurabi. This law code shows that in early Babylonian society they thought the best punishment was an eye for an eye. By setting such law codes they made the punishment so harsh that the person who committed the crime would never think about committing it again. Some people read the Code of Hammurabi and do not agree with it because of the harshness of the laws. The Code of Hammurabi is set to keep the Babylonian society safe . By setting The Code of Hammurabi the Babylon society was looking for the perfect society.

Some of the laws had to do with slaves. Slaves were so valuable that stealing a slave was punishable by death. Law fifteen states that “If anyone takes a male or female slave of the court, or a male or female slave of a freed man, outside the city gates, he shall be put to death.” Owners were compensated if a slave was injured or died.

The Code of Hammurabi reveals that Babylon had a dynamic medical community. In fact, Mesopotamians were the first great practitioners of medical science. Many of the laws of The Code of Hammurabi deal with payments to physicians and penalties for malpractice. The astronomers of Babylon were a special group of scribes who observed the movements of the stars and planets.
The astronomers had many different responsibilities. They recorded their observations about the daily, monthly and yearly position of the stars and planets. They advised the king about how their observations affected the calendar. The Babylonians also knew about fractions, squares, and square roots, cubes and other kinds of advanced math. How do we know? Tablets written in cuneiform tell us so. The equations and such were carved into clay tablets and then baked by the heat of the Sun. Babylonian science made early developments in medicine, astronomy and mathematics.

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