Each city-state enjoyed its own freedoms, but also shared many of the same things including language, religion and sciences. Trade between the city-states was also very important because it allowed goods to flow from one city to another. One of the most interesting facts about Mesopotamia can be seen in Hammurabi’s Code, the Amorite King Hammurabi’s list of crimes and punishments, which is known to be the earliest written “legal” writing of the time. Hammurabi’s code contains the famously known saying: “if a man has destroyed the eye of a member of the aristocracy: thy shall destroy his eye. If he has broken his limb: thy shall break the same limb.” Many people know about this saying but do not know where it came from; it is extremely interesting that it came from one of the earliest civilizations.
He ruled from 1792 to 1750 B.C.E. He was a very successful ruler, who conquered many groups and cities. As his empire grew he saw a need to unify his people with one set of laws for all to follow. In addition, he wanted to make sure that his people accepted his authority as king completely without question, which he believed came directly from the gods. Hammurabi had his scribes create the world's first written, comprehensive law code.
* Is severe punishment for criminal offense * Hammurabi was the sixth ruler or king of the old Babylonian Dynasty. * His first accomplishment was that he controlled the Euphrates Rivers of Mesopotamia, by unifying his kingdom. * Hammurabi is also known for the set of laws called “Hammurabi’s Codes”, which are one of the first written codes of law in Western history. * The Hammurabi’s codes tell about the importance of writing and literacy among the elite of Babylonian society. * -The Code of Hammurabi was one of several sets of laws in the Ancient Near East.
The reign on Ramesses II was a very significant event in New Kingdom Egypt. His 67 year reign had many influences and factors which made him a great pharaoh. The influences and factors are building program, foreign policy and his wife, Nefertari. Today, the main reason why Ramesses II was a powerful pharaoh is that of his large buildings and structures which are still standing, such as the Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak. These sites provide significant knowledge for historians and archaeologists to learn about Ramesses’ II reign and the impact which has continued for over 3000 years.
Akhenaten was a king who left an ever lasting impression in history; his revolutionary ideas in religion and art broke conventions of many years of Egyptian tradition. His devotion to the single god Aten is considered by many critics as the first evidence of monotheism in the ancient world. Akhenaten was a revolutionary and made many changes. One of the most visible changes was in Amarna in the manner in which the human form is depicted, particularly in the proportions and the extreme physical features of the king himself. In sculptures, paintings and reliefs, Akhenaten is shown as having a slender neck, a long face with a sharp chin, narrow, almond-shaped eyes, full lips, high cheek bones, projecting lower jaw, long arms and fingers, swollen stomach, feminine buttocks, wide hips, heavy thighs, enlarged breasts and spindly calves.
This code is the most valuable index to life in ancient Mesopotamia. It also is very important to us now because it provides us with information regarding Babylonian culture and social relations. One nearly complete example of the Code survives today, on a diorite stele in the shape of a huge index finger. The Code of Hammurabi interests me for the simple fact that it shows how much times have changed over time. Today, we imprison people for their wrongful actions that have to be looked over through court hearings rather than give them the same punishment and torture them.
Rameses I I: The Last Great Pharaoh Rameses I I (also commonly spelled Ramesses I I or Ramses I I) was the third pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty, son of pharaoh Seti I, and grandson of pharaoh Rameses I. He ruled for approximately 66 years in the middle of a period known as the New Kingdom when Egypt was most powerful. During his reign from 1279-1213 BC, Egypt enjoyed an era of prosperity and stability, not only internally, but externally as well. He is responsible for the building of more monuments and famous structures than any other pharaoh, having many structures and statues renamed as if he commissioned them himself. By the end of his unusually long reign, he was famous throughout the ancient world and considered by many to be the last great pharaoh.
Hammurabi’s Code introduced the right to present a defense and placed the burden of evidence on the accuser. Many of the Code’s entries specified punishments for different crimes. It also covered family law and contained extensive trade and labor regulations, very similar to modern ones. The Code was engraved in cuneiform on giant stones, called steles; and also distributed on clay tablets, which were displayed in public throughout the Babylonian empire. A complete, and mostly intact, basalt stele of Hammurabi’s Code survives today, and is on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.
Giza was so grand it was said that it was a staircase to the sun. Finally Ramses temple, which surpassed all of the other Pharaohs temples. All of these Pharaohs changed Egypt in the way that they lived, but these three were the ones that brought the most change through their lives and actions. Zoser was the first King of the third dynasty. During his 19 year reign he brought the end to a seven year famine, and also brought them into a golden age, and he built the step pyramid.
William Thomas Oliver 11 September 2011 History 101 Mr. Alexander The early Ancient Mesopotamian civilizations wrote laws that have evolved somewhat into what we use today in our modern laws. What I observed in this topic is that in Ancient Middle East laws were written by kings, not by a group of people known as a governing body. The legal code of Hammurabi from Ancient Middle Eastern time were the most famous laws made after the Hebrew Torah. These laws are interesting to most readers because it tells us how the attitudes of ancient Babylonians. There attitudes were a little barbaric in a sense of the punishments, death, breaking of bones, gouging out of the eyes tied up and cast into the water, I guess its what we call now a days, “ an eye for eye, tooth for a tooth”.