They both wrote one of the first works of literature in history. Gilgamesh came from Mesopotamia and The Book of the Dead came from Egypt. Mesopotamia and Egypt differ in regards to politics concerning structure, government, and leadership. Pharaohs ruled ancient Egyptians and kings ruled Mesopotamia. Egypt was a highly centralized bureaucracy and Mesopotamia of self-governing city-states.
The first royal dynasty to bring the city-states in Mesopotamia together was the kingdom of Akkadia, followed by a later kingdom of Babylonia. Centuries later the Hittite Empire brought a new concept of multiethnic, multireligious and multilinguistic kingdom. Eventually Assyrian unified all of the Middle East. The cities surrounded by walls with people lived behind the wall, were invaded by people over and over again for centuries. This also led the creation of pessimistic and ferocious religious beliefs.
Hammurabi ruled the Babylonian empire from 1792-50 BCE. He was concerned for maintaining order in his kingdom, hence the creation of his code; however, these laws were also used to unify the groups he controlled, as his territory grew. The code of Hammurabi consists of two hundred and eighty paragraphs on civil and criminal law. It pertained mainly to everyday life and served as a legal aid for anyone seeking advice. The Code of Hammurabi consists of three sections known as the Prologue, the Laws, and the Epilogue.
A civilization is a society in which large numbers of people share a variety of common elements. These elements can either be cultural or economical. Members of a civilization are broken down into diverse labor groups and a hierarchy. Leaders before 1500 were either born into leadership or gained hierarchy threw war. After the death of a prior king the first son would usually take over.
It consisted of wedge-shaped symbols carved into clay tablets. Before Sargon I established the first empire in history, each individual city was considered its own state. This was because there were so many natural boundaries between cities. Each city had its own hereditary ruler, or king. These independent city states traded with each other.
The Code of Hammurabi was developed by King Hammurabi and governed the Mesopotamamian society. This code was derived from the Sumerian laws. It contained 282 laws that governed a vast array of daily life. Draco’s law was developed in ancient Greece. The punishment for most violations was death.
As each new group of people moved into the region governments were established. Much of Mesopotamian history lay buried beneath the sand and soil for thousands of years. However, there were clues, such as the ruins of ziggurats, that treasures lay below the surface. Mesopotamia lay in the region between the Euphrates River and the Tigris River, and because of the shape the area is called the Fertile Crescent. The word Mesopotamia actually means (in Greek) “the country between the rivers.
orical laws Historical Laws and Security Lori Fowler University of Phoenix The code of Hammurabi is a code that was established in 1780 BC. It was one of the first laws that was found. It is a code of laws and their punishments that were made by Hammurabi during his reign as King. Hammurabi code was a list of crimes and the punishments for those crimes. There were settlements for disputes that may come up amongst citizens.
They worked at farming, domestic service, and craft production, and could be freed under certain conditions. 8. Kings and their families topped Mesopotamian society, followed by their counselors and the priests and priestesses. 9. Sumerians believed that the gods gave the king power so long as he ensured justice, established law, and defended his city-state from foreign attack.
Hammurabi vs. Decalogue The birth of civilization is believed to be around 4000 BCE in Mesopotamia. This marked the birth of a new era, the transition from rural to urban life, and more complex forms of organization. The Mesopotamian social order started to develop as people gradually mastered their crafts as a priest, soldier, farmer etc. As people came together as a society, advances in technology came shortly after. The first written language was created known as cuneiforms, a symbolic way to record trades and stories.