A Study of Cuneiform Law Codes in Ancient Mesopotamia

1994 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 05610323
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: History of Europe and America
• Research Institution: CHUO UNIVERSITY
• Principal Investigator: NAKATA Ichiro Chuo Univ., Dept.of History, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (50119541)
• Project Period (FY): 1993 – 1994
• Keywords: Mesopotamia / Cuneiform law / Assyriology / Code of Hammurapi / Code of Eshnunna / Babylonia

Research Abstract

The purpose of this study supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture was three-fold : to make an up-to-date Japanese translation of the cuneiform law codes, to re-examine the nature of the cuneiform law code and to make a comparative study of the law in the law codes and that reflected in the contemporary legal documents. So far many of the texts as well as secondary materials on the subjects have been collected and the Code of Hammurapi in its entirety has been translated into Japanese, but the fragmentary remains of the other codes both in Sumerian and Akkadian remain to be translated. However, my study of the various versions of the prologue of the Code of Hammurapi shows that the prologue, and hence the Code itself, had a rather complicated prehistory. Further, I am now convinced through this study that the cuneiform codes of law must be viewed as products, like the lexical lists of words and phrases, of the Mesopotamian scholastic tradition and not as legally binding codes of law.