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The Code of Ur-Nammu — Ur-Nammu (Sumer)

~2050 BC · Transmission: Global
LawLegalMesopotamian

After the fall of the Akkadian Empire and the defeat of the Gutians, Ur-Nammu founds the Third Dynasty of Ur and institutes a code of laws: the oldest surviving one with a formal legal structure of "if (offense), then (penalty)" — unlike the reforms of Urukagina, three centuries earlier, which document grievances and corrective measures without that conditional formula. Ur-Nammu's code organizes 57 laws with that pattern, followed by nearly all later Mesopotamian codes. Its most distinctive feature is preferring monetary compensation over physical punishment for non-lethal bodily injuries (homicide, robbery, adultery, and rape are punished with death). The text survives fragmentarily on tablets from Nippur and Ur, first translated by Samuel Kramer in 1952.

Historical regionSumer (southern Mesopotamia) — city of Ur
Primary sourceCuneiform tablets of the Code of Ur-Nammu, fragments from Nippur and Ur
Secondary sourceRoth, Martha T. — Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor (Society of Biblical Literature, 1995/1997)
Original languageSumerian
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