Babilonia

     Hello, everyone. Today I will write about Babilonia. Do you know what Babilonia is? You are science students, so I guess not all of you know this. Babilonia is an ancient civilization. This is famous for establishing the world's oldest statutory law, called the Code of Hammurabi. This is written by unknown letters (at least when it was found), so it was not until 1835 that researchers found out what it says. At the Louvre museum, you can see this engraved on a stone.

    This stipulated how criminals should be punished. Those look very severe to today's civilians. For example, death penalties were applied for females who had entered a pub, those who had harbored fleeing slaves, and females who had divorced their husbands without a "good" reason. The stipulation also included a lot of elements from the superstition of Babilonia. When there were conflicts between Babylonians, defendants were forced to dive into a river. It was believed that guilties would drown to death. Then, if they survived, the plaintiffs were executed for having lied.

    However, it is fact that Hammurabi contributed to the modern concept of law. He also said that future rulers should obey the law. That was very innovative for the time, at which rulers had huge authority and no limitation.