Analyze Hammurabi's Code (c. 1754 BCE, Babylon) as the world's earliest extensive law code (282 laws on a diorite stele, Louvre Museum) — including its principle of lex talionis ('eye for eye'), its variation by social class (awilum/mushkenum/wardum — free citizens / commoners / enslaved), and its function as Mesopotamian kingship's claim to divinely sanctioned legal authority
Exercise
Difficulty 4
~6 min
hist.g6.f.ex_09
Compare Contrast
Prompt
Compare Mesopotamian debt-slavery (Hammurabi Code Law 117 — limited to 3 years maximum) with later transatlantic chattel slavery (lifetime + hereditary + racialized). Name 2 DIFFERENCES and 2 SIMILARITIES. Use Resilience-FIRST framing for the differences.
How it's presented
mode
text
Answer criteria
type
rubric scored writing
rubric
3 stars: 2 named differences (time-limited vs lifetime; non-hereditary vs hereditary; non-racialized vs racialized) + 2 named similarities (both deprive freedom; both can be inherited or perpetuated; both have manumission patterns) + Resilience-FIRST framing. 2 stars: 2 differences + 2 similarities, no framing. 1 star: 1 difference + 1 similarity. 0: <2 of each.
Hints
- Difference 1: Mesopotamian debt-slavery was TIME-LIMITED legally.
- Similarity: both are slavery and both deprive freedom.
Misconceptions to watch
- Conflating Mesopotamian and transatlantic slavery as the same
- Erasing Mesopotamian slavery as 'less bad'
Used in lessons