factbase-ancient-history/legal-codes/code-of-ur-nammu.md

Code of Ur-Nammu

Overview

The Code of Ur-Nammu (~2100–2050 BCE) is the oldest known surviving legal code, predating the Code of Hammurabi by ~300 years. It was issued by Ur-Nammu (or his son Shulgi) of the Third Dynasty of Ur. @t[~2100 BCE..~2050 BCE]

Key Facts

• Date: ~2100–2050 BCE @t[~2100 BCE..~2050 BCE]
• Issuer: Ur-Nammu (r. 2112–2095 BCE) or his son Shulgi (r. 2094–2047 BCE), Third Dynasty of Ur
• Language: Sumerian (cuneiform script on clay tablets)
• Discovered: Fragments found at Nippur, Ur, and Sippar; primary tablet (Ni 3191) held at Istanbul Archaeology Museums
• First translated: Samuel Noah Kramer, 1952 ¹

Physical Record

• Primary tablet (Ni 3191): Two fragments from Nippur, Old Babylonian period copy; held at Istanbul Archaeology Museums
• Ur fragments (IM 85688+85689): Found at Ur, translated 1965; held at Iraq Museum, Baghdad
• Sippar exemplars: Two tablets — Si 277 (Istanbul Museum) bears the prologue; BM 54722+ (British Museum) bears the laws
• Schoyen Collection cylinder (MS 2064): Clay cylinder of unknown provenance, dated to Ur III period, preserves 8 columns ²
• Total laws: ~57 reconstructed across all fragments; ~30 legible in any single recension ²

Content

• Prologue invokes deities Nanna (moon god) and Utu (sun god), establishing the king as agent of divine justice
• Prologue also records standardization of weights and measures (the bronze sila-measure, one-mina weight, shekel of silver) ²
• Laws arranged in casuistic form: IF (crime) THEN (punishment) — a pattern followed in nearly all later codes ³
• Uses monetary compensation (fines in silver) rather than lex talionis ("eye for an eye") for most offenses ³
• Capital offenses: murder, robbery, adultery (by a woman), and rape of a virgin wife ²
• Covers: Bodily injury, kidnapping, slavery, marriage and divorce, sexual offenses, agricultural disputes, sorcery accusations

Social Structure Reflected

• Society divided into two strata: lu (free person) and slave (arad male, geme female) ²
• Fines and penalties differentiated by social status
• Prologue emphasizes protection of the weak: "the orphan was not delivered up to the rich man; the widow was not delivered up to the mighty man" ²

Significance

• Oldest known surviving legal code, predating Hammurabi by ~300 years
• Earlier code of Urukagina (~24th century BCE) is known only through references; Ur-Nammu's is the earliest extant text ⁴
• Favored fines over physical punishment, contrasting with the later lex talionis of Hammurabi's code
• Influenced subsequent Mesopotamian codes: Laws of Eshnunna (~1930 BCE) and Code of Lipit-Ishtar (~1870 BCE), which in turn shaped the Code of Hammurabi ⁴
• Demonstrates sophisticated legal thinking in the 3rd millennium BCE ¹

Related Documents

• Code of Hammurabi — later Babylonian code, ~300 years after Ur-Nammu
• Ur-Nammu — issuer of the code
• Third Dynasty of Ur — political context

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1. Kramer, S.N. "Ur-Nammu Law Code" Orientalia 23 (1954); History Begins at Sumer (1956) ↩︎

2. Wikipedia contributors, "Code of Ur-Nammu," Wikipedia (accessed 2026-02-23), citing Finkelstein (1968), Yildiz (1981), Frayne (1997), Gurney & Kramer (1965) ↩︎

3. Roth, M.T. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor (1997) ↩︎

4. Mark, J.J. "The Ancient Mesopotamian Legal Code of Ur-Nammu," World History Encyclopedia (2021) ↩︎