Code Of Hammurabi Dbq

John Ratzenberger once said, “Find people who share your values, and you'll conquer the world together.” It is undeniable that many ancient civilizations were shaped by their values, among them being order, morals, a deity, and honor. These values made each civilization unique from one another and gave them each defining features. Without these values the civilizations would not be as powerful and influential as they were.
Many rulers were interested in maintaining order, and for Hammurabi, that was one of his main concerns. After becoming the king of Babylon, he created one of the first written law codes, The Code of Hammurabi. This law code was made up of 282 laws that were carved into a stone pillar. Numerous laws were very rash and many
would discriminate against the lower social class and slaves. For example, it says, “If a man has destroyed the eye of a man of the upper class, they shall destroy his eye… If he has destroyed the eye of a gentleman’s slave… he shall pay half [the slave’s] price.” There was a clear distinction between social classes. To be sure that his law code would live on, Hammurabi last wrote that the kings “to the end of days” will follow the laws. He valued in his societal order, and it helped his society to thrive for a lengthy period (Document 2)
Morals are essential to have in any civilization, and for the Egyptians, it was a huge part of their society. They believed in The Book of the Dead, a collection of prayers and hymns that were placed with a person when they died. They believed this would help the dead to have an easy passage into the afterlife. There were almost 200 individual parts that would use the format of “I have not…” This set of prayers helped to become a moral code for the Egyptians. They believed if you did any of these, you would not stay in The Field of Reeds upon death. The topics ranged from “I have not done violence to a poor man” to “I have not driven cattle away from their pasturage.” The Egyptians were so passionate about their trip into the afterlife that they would try to follow this code which influenced their society as an important value (Document 3).
The main value that many civilizations seemed to share is the belief in a deity.
The Book of Songs is one of the earliest collections of Chinese poems. It contains about 305 total poems, including “King Wen”. King Wen speaks about the Mandate of Heaven, which is the belief that the gods approve or disprove of each dynasty in power. In “King Wen”, the author praises the gods for allowing the Zhou dynasty to come into power, but also does warn the Zhou dynasty that they can lose this mandate just as easily as they received it (Document 4). The Book of the Dead, the moral code for the Egyptians constantly mentions the gods. It tells the Egyptians not to avoid any expense when taking to the gods and to always be respectful to them (Document 3). In Genesis 6:9-7:23 there is the famous story of Noah and the Ark. The story says that God punished the people with a flood that killed everyone, but he allowed Noah to take two of every animal into a boat. It reads that Noah creates an altar to his God the very second that the flood is over. He offers each animal to his God, even after God allowed the huge flood to kill everyone (Document 5). The Book of Exodus is also in the Bible and it is the story of Moses leading the Jews to freedom. One of the most profound parts of this is the part that God says that as long as the Jews stay loyal to him, they will be led to freedom and a holy nation. God is, in a sense, telling them to put him first and all will be well (Document 6). In each of
the civilizations explained above, there is a deity that has an influence on the people, and keeps the people loyal to this deity.
The final value that is very important is honor. The Odyssey is the story written by Homer about what happened after the Trojan War. The story follows Odysseus, a war hero on his way home. In the process, he meets his old friend Elpenor who died. Elpenor never received a proper burial and is very upset. Elpenor cries out, “Left behind unwept, unburied, don’t or my curse may draw God’s fury on your head… Perform my rites...” He begs Odysseus to give him a proper burial or else he will curse Odysseus (Document 7). Honor was a very important part of the Greek culture, and it’s a value that is necessary to bring peace to the dead.
Through there were many values in many different civilizations, the most prominent ones are order, morals, a deity, and honor.
Without these values, these civilizations would be significantly different and would likely not have survived as long as they did. Values are essential to each civilization, just as how order was important to the Babylonians, morals were important to the Egyptians, a deity or multiple deities were important to the Egyptians, Chinese, Israelites, and Jews, and lastly, honor was important to the Greeks. Even today, many of these values still are in use and significant. These values truly did help each civilization
thrive.