1. Chapter 3.1
Akkad and Babylon

2. Questions How is an empire different from a civilization?
What are some of the difficulties in maintaining an empire?

3. Akkad ~2340 BCE, Akkadians overrun Sumerian city-states
Sargon: leader of Akkad
Akkad becomes first empire in world history
Empire: A large political unit or state, usually under a single leader, that controls many peoples or territories.
Sargon’s power based on strong military
5,400 men
Sargon’s grandson Naram-Sin takes power, expands empire
Akkadian empire falls by 2150 BCE (~190 years)

5. Babylonian Empire Hammurabi’s Rule
End of Akkadian empire brings return to city- states
Hammurabi: King of city-state Babylon
(1792 BCE) Establishes new Mesopotamian empire with help of new military tactics
Babylonian Empire is short lived (42 years)
Hammurabi’s death in 1750 BCE led to weak successors

8. Code of Hammurabi
Code of laws that regulated people’s relationships with one another
Based on a system of strict justice; retaliation (eye for an eye)
Strict standards for public officials
Early consumer-protection laws

11. Code of Hammurabi
Much of the Code of Hammurabi is focused on marriage/family
Mesopotamian society was patriarchal
Patriarchal: male-dominated
Women had far fewer rights according to Hammurabi’s Code than men
Children also strictly controlled

12. Code of Hammurabi Examples
If a builder builds a house and the house collapses and kills the owner of the house, the builder shall be put to death. If the house collapses and kills the owner's son, then the son of the builder shall be put to death.
If a man has stolen the goods of a temple or palace, that man shall be killed, and he who has received the stolen thing from his hand shall be put to death.
 If a man has stolen ox or sheep or donkey or pig or ship, whether from the temple or the palace, he shall pay thirtyfold. If he be a poor man, he shall render tenfold. If the thief has nought to pay, he shall be put to death.
If an owner of lost property has not brought witnesses knowing his lost property, he has lied. He has stirred up strife; he shall be put to death.
If anyone breaks into a house to steal, he will be put to death before that point of entry and be buried there (walled into the house).
If a holy woman opens a tavern door or enters a tavern for a drink, she shall be burned to death.

13. Code of Hammurabi Activity
Using your phones, go to:
Read through portions of the laws on that site.
On a sheet of paper, answer:
Based on these laws, what can we learn about Babylonian society?
About their religion?
About gender?
About social classes?
About criminal punishment?
Any other observations:
USE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES

14. Code of Hammurabi Project
Partner Work
Using your answers from the previous Code of Hammurabi activity, make a final decision on whether or not the following things were treated fairly in your own opinion:
Gender
Social class
Criminal punishment
Create a presentation (Google Slides) that compares laws from the Code of Hammurabi to laws in the modern/historic U.S.
Each slide should include your opinion of the law from Hammurabi’s Code and of the law from the U.S. with a brief description of why
Minimum four slides (one for each category and title slide)
Due Sunday, 9/3
Share with:

15. HAMMURABI VS. UNITED STATES
Mr. Shipp

16. GENDER
Babylon
110. If a holy woman opens a tavern door or enters a tavern for a drink, she shall be burned to death.
UNFAIR: Hammurabi’s Code makes no mention of penalties for a man doing the same thing, only a woman.
United States
The rights of citizens of the State of Utah to vote and hold office shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex. Both male and female citizens of this State shall enjoy all civil, political and religious rights and privileges. Utah Constitution, Article IV, §1 (1896)
FAIR: This permits both men and women the same exact rights.

17. SOCIAL CLASS
Babylon
196. If a man put out the eye of a nobleman, his eye shall be put out.
199. If he puts out the eye of a man's slave, or breaks the bone of a man's slave, he shall pay one-half of its value.
UNFAIR: Nobility are protected by stricter laws, whereas the punishment for mistreating a slave is lenient.
United States
Virginia, 1705 – "If any slave resists his master... correcting such a slave, and shall happen to be killed in such correction... the master shall be free of all punishment... as if such accident never happened.“
UNFAIR: This law explicitly states that freemen are exempt from crimes against slaves, when crimes against other freemen would be punishable.