ACKERMANAt a glance
History, context & interpretation
The text and its story
282 laws on trade, family, property and punishment. The top of the stele shows Hammurabi receiving royal authority from Shamash.
Traditional attribution
Laws given to King Hammurabi by Shamash, god of justice.
Historical scholarship
Commissioned by Hammurabi of Babylon; the best copy is a 2.25 m basalt stele now in the Louvre.
Context and curiosity
The stele was carried off as war loot to Susa in Iran and found there in 1901.
Chronology and transmission
This text belongs to Mesopotamia & the Levant (Babylon). The catalogue gives its approximate dating as c. 1755–1750 BCE and original language or script as Akkadian. The dated manuscript witnesses and traditional claims may not refer to the same historical event.
Sources and further reading
Historical descriptions are educational summaries. Religious traditions, scholarly interpretations and unverified claims are distinguished where possible; imagery may be illustrative rather than an artifact photograph.
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