c. 1750 BCE · Early law
Code of Hammurabi
Babylon
A collection of nearly three hundred laws carved on a stone pillar by the Babylonian king Hammurabi, covering trade, property, family and crimes.
Why it matters
It is one of the oldest surviving written collections of law, and it shows an early idea that laws should be public and written down.
Built on
No earlier text on this timeline is a documented model for it.
Went on to shape
No later text on this timeline is recorded as built on it.
TheLawToKnow Tools’s timeline lists links of influence only where the borrowing is widely documented. Historians sometimes disagree about how much one text shaped another. It is an educational overview, not legal advice.
