The Code of Hammurabi

143 snips

Mar 12, 2026

Guest

Selena Wisnom

Selena Wisnom, lecturer in Middle Eastern heritage, on Babylonian religion and ritual. Frances Reynolds, Assyriologist from Oxford, on the stele and legal phrasing. Martin Worthington, Middle Eastern studies professor, on Babylonian language and history. They trace the stele's imagery, the code's conditional style, social ranks and punishments, and how the law was displayed, read and reused across Mesopotamia.

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INSIGHT

If-Then Form Echoes Omen Tradition

Hammurabi's laws use an if-then structure derived from omen and predictive literature to link causes and consequences.
Frances Reynolds ties legal format to vast Mesopotamian omen lists connecting events to divine messages.

INSIGHT

Punishments Vary By Social Rank

Lex talionis appears but penalties vary by social status: equal corporal punishment for elites, fines or compensation for lower classes and slaves.
Selena Wisnom explains blindness laws impose different remedies depending on victim's rank.

INSIGHT

Clear Social Hierarchy Embedded In Law

The code reveals three legal strata: awelum (free citizens), mushkenum (retainers/middle class), and wardum/amtum (slaves) with distinct rights and liabilities.
Frances Reynolds outlines mushkenum as retainers tied to palace or private employers.

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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.

With

Martin Worthington Professor in Middle Eastern Studies at Trinity College Dublin

Frances Reynolds Shillito Fellow and Associate Professor of Assyriology at the University of Oxford and Senior Research Fellow at The Queen’s College

And

Selena Wisnom Lecturer in the Heritage of the Middle East at the University of Leicester

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Reading list:

Zainab Bahrani, Mesopotamia: Ancient Art and Architecture (Thames and Hudson, 2017)

Dominique Charpin, Hammurabi of Babylon (I.B. Tauris, 2021)

Prudence O. Harper, Joan Aruz and Françoise Tallon, The Royal City of Susa: Ancient Near Eastern Treasures from the Louvre (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992)

J. Nicholas Postgate (ed.), Languages of Iraq, Ancient and Modern (British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2007), especially ‘Babylonian and Assyrian: A History of Akkadian’ by Andrew R. George

Martha T. Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor (2nd edition, Scholars Press, 1997)

Marc Van De Mieroop, King Hammurabi of Babylon: A Biography (Wiley, 2005)

Marc Van De Mieroop, A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000–323 BC (4th edition (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2006)

Selena Wisnom, The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History (Allen Lane, 2025)

Martin Worthington, Complete Babylonian: A Comprehensive Guide to Reading and Understanding Babylonian with Original Texts (Teach Yourself Library, 2012)

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Production

Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.