Ancient Law Codes

A detailed Summary of Ancient Law Codes


Laws have been around for many centuries. A law is known to be a set of official rules and regulations, which are generally found in constitutions, legislation, judicial opinions and that is applied and enforced amongst all members of society. The nature and functions of law have varied throughout history. Laws develop as society evolves. Historically, the simplest societies were tribal. The members of the tribe were bonded together originally by the understanding and worship of the same gods. Even in the absence of courts and legislature there was law--a combination of custom, morality, religion and magic. There are three predominant Ancient law codes that are known by many people. These codes are: The Code of Hammurabi, The 10 Commandments and the Old Testament and The Book of the Dead. The earliest known codification of law is the Code of Hammurabi. It has been around for about 4000 years.

The Code of Hammurabi was known to be the mist earliest record of codification. This code was known as an "Eye for an Eye". This meant that the more severe the crime was th


Book of the Dead was the name generally given to a large collection of mournful texts of various dates, containing magical formulas, hymns, and prayers. This was believed by the ancient Egyptians to guide and protect the soul in its journey into the region of the dead. These texts also indicated that happiness in the afterlife was dependent on the deceased's having led an honorable life on earth. The Book of Death dealt more with what one did in their life. And that what happened in their previous life would be a big affect amongst their afterlife. The earliest religious texts were found cut in Hieroglyphs on the walls inside the pyramids. These later became known as pyramid texts. The texts could be thought of as deceased's guidebook to a happy afterlife.

e harsher the punishment was. The Code of Hammurabi was an attempt to bring order to Babylonian society. The laws and punishment were very direct and plain. The punishments seem harsh to us today, but they were no better or worse to other societies. Our modern laws are more open to interpretation and the punishments seem to be less

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Approximate Word count = 736
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