The Law

~2800 BCE · FMB 27 — Bodmer Museum, Cologny, Switzerland

“PA~a GU4(?) 4(N14) — NESAG~a, KI~a, EN~a, NAM2, KAB, GAR 5(N14) — GAN2, AB~a, X, EN~a(?) 3(N14) — X, AD~c(?) 3(N14) — KA~a, DU6~a 2(N50) 7(N14)(?) — GAN2, |SILA3~a×DUG~a| [X] — IB~a, MASZ, URUDU~a [X] — TUM3, DUB~b [X] — MUSZ3~a, X 2(N14) — GISZ×SZU2~a, X [...] 2(N14) — BU~a# [...] 2(N14) — X, BU~a# [...] 4(N14) — GAL~a, X, SZUBUR(?) [...]”

Source: engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware)

~2270 BCE · MM 0440 — Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain

“Wood(en) ... not ... [...] Wooden [object], [its] face/front, [sign uncertain], ... not (At the) foot / path of the city The path(?) of Utu is made just [...] ...-[broken] A man [...] path(?) [...] to measure [...] vessel(?) Toward its throne dais(?) A man who does not return (what he owes to) a man A man who does not add (what is due) to a man [...] Wood(en) [...] ... [...] Wood(en?) binding [...] The term of office passes ... [...] [...] for its destiny, a judgment is rendered Alas — it was brought out [...]”

Source: engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware)

~2100 BCE · Istanbul Archaeological Museums

“If a man has cut off another man's foot — he shall pay ten shekels of silver.”

Source: Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor

The oldest surviving law code in human history. The principle that the state — not the wronged family — defines and enforces justice begins here.

~1754 BCE · Louvre, Paris

“If a man has destroyed the eye of another man — they shall destroy his eye.”

Source: Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor

Not the first law code, but the most complete and the most famous. Inscribed on a black diorite stele over two meters tall, displayed in a public place — law made visible, law made monumental.

~1340 BCE · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

“To the king, my lord, my god, my Sun-god, thus speaks Abi-milku, your servant, the dust at your feet: I fall at the feet of the king, my lord, seven times and seven times …”

Source: Moran, The Amarna Letters (1992)

Part of the earliest known body of international diplomatic correspondence. Akkadian, written in cuneiform on clay, was the lingua franca of Late Bronze Age statecraft — used between Egypt, the Hittites, Mitanni, Babylon, Assyria, and the Levantine vassals.

~1300 BCE · Reconstructed composite — see ORACC entry for manuscript witnesses

“(1) Tukultī-Ninurta (I), king of the world, strong king, king of Assyria, king of the four quarters (of the world), sun(god) of all of the people, exalted priest, chosen of (the god) Aššur and Enlil, attentive ruler, creature of the gods Anu and Ea, the capable, the ferocious, loved one of the gods Šamaš and Adad, valiant dragon, favourite of the gods Marduk and Zababa, exceeding in strength, the strong one whose support is the god Ninurta — the hero of weapons — loved one of the divine power (manifest in) the goddess Ištar’s banquet, true shepherd, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the Upper…”

Source: Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online (RIAo), Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; in association with the RINAP Project, University of Pennsylvania. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/riao/Q009242/

~800 BCE · Reconstructed composite — see ORACC entry for manuscript witnesses

“(1) Adad-nārārī (III), great king, strong king, king of the world, king of Assyria, son of Šamšī-Adad (V), strong king, king of the world, king of Assyria, son of Shalmaneser (III), king of the four quarters (of the world): (4) The boundary that Adad-nārārī (III), king of Assyria, (and) Šamšī-ilu, the field marshal established between Zakkūru of the land of Hamath and Attār-šumki, son of Abi-rāmu: the city Naḫlasi, together with all its fields, gardens, [and] settlements, is (the property) of Attār-šumki. They divided the Orontes River between them. This is the border. (8b) Adad-nārārī (III),…”

Source: Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online (RIAo), Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; in association with the RINAP Project, University of Pennsylvania. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/riao/Q004750/

~539 BCE · British Museum, London (BM 90920)

“I am Cyrus, king of the world, great king, mighty king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters of the world… When I entered Babylon as a friend, and established the seat of government in the palace of the ruler under jubilation and rejoicing, Marduk, the great lord, induced the magnanimous inhabitants of Babylon to love me…”

Source: Schaudig 2001, Die Inschriften Nabonids von Babylon und Kyros' des Großen; Finkel 2013, The Cyrus Cylinder: The King of Persia's Proclamation from Ancient Babylon

Often called the world's first declaration of human rights — a 20th-century characterization that overstates its scope; it is, more accurately, a typical Mesopotamian royal accession text framed as Marduk's restoration of order. But its references to religious tolerance and the return of exiled peoples (which the Hebrew Bible echoes in describing the end of the Babylonian Exile) have made it one of the most politically resonant cuneiform artifacts ever recovered.