1750 BC

Code of Hammurabi

Hammurabi's law stele is inscribed

Above the laws, Shamash does not hand Hammurabi a written code. The Louvre reads the objects he extends as the insignia of royal power.

Around 1750 BCE, near the end of a reign

Around 1750 BCE, near the end of Hammurabi's reign, craftsmen in Mesopotamia engraved a monumental stone stele with a prologue, a collection of judicial decisions and an epilogue presenting Hammurabi as a just ruler.

The entry is filed under 1800 BCE, but the Louvre dates the engraving broadly to around 1750 BCE and catalogues the object to Hammurabi's reign, 1792–1750 BCE; no exact year or day is known.

The surviving text carries 282 judgments, written as conditional cases covering family, property, trade and labor. The monument stands 225 centimetres tall, 79 wide and 47 thick.

Not a code in the modern sense

The Louvre describes it as a collection of judicial decisions rather than a statute book. It is not comprehensive, and there is no evidence that courts began consulting it as binding law or that an empire-wide legal change followed.

Nor was it first: earlier Mesopotamian law collections survive in fragmentary form. The relief above the text shows the seated sun god Shamash, patron of justice, extending the insignia of royal power to Hammurabi.

Made in Mesopotamia, found in Iran

The stele was made in Mesopotamia but recovered at Susa, in modern Iran, in 1901–1902. The Louvre identifies Shutruk-Nahhunte as the Elamite ruler who carried it there as war booty centuries after it was carved.

Its original installation site is unknown. Even the stone is argued over: the Louvre calls it basalt, other museum and scholarly literature calls it diorite, and recent research treats the identification as an unresolved technical question.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 7 sources 2 audit passes Date corrected

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

Date corrected. The research places this at ~-1750.

What the sources leave uncertain

The Louvre dates the engraving broadly to around 1750 BCE and catalogs the object to Hammurabi's reign, 1792–1750 BCE; no exact year or day is known.
The original installation site is uncertain. The stele was created in Mesopotamia but recovered at Susa after ancient removal.
The stone is traditionally described as basalt by the Louvre and as diorite in other museum and scholarly literature; recent research treats the material identification as an unresolved technical question.
Scholars debate the collection's legal function. It is not a comprehensive statutory code in the modern sense.