The Hammurabi code of laws, a collection of 282 rules, established standards for commercial interactions and set fines and punishments to meet the requirements of justice. Hammurabi’s Code was carved onto a massive, finger-shaped black stone stele (pillar) that was looted by invaders and finally rediscovered in 1901.

The Hammurabi Code encapsulates 282 legal codes that were used to basically govern the people of ancient Babylon during King Hammurabi’s reign. Written in the dominant language at the time, the Akkadian language, the code provided a legal framework for the exchange of goods and services in the ancient city-state of Babylon.

The Code of Hammurabi was a set of 282 laws inscribed in stone by the Babylonian king Hammurabi (r. 1795-1750 BCE) who conquered and then ruled ancient Mesopotamia. Although his law code was not the first, it was the most clearly defined and influenced the laws of other cultures.

Known today as the Code of Hammurabi, the 282 laws are one of the earliest and more complete written legal codes from ancient times. The codes have served as a model for establishing justice in other cultures and are believed to have influenced laws established by Hebrew scribes, including those in the Book of Exodus.

Historians describe the Hammurabi code as a surviving symbol of an ancient Mesopotamian system for solving disputes, punishing crimes and regulating business practices, which was an early influence upon the development over many centuries of the systems of laws and courts that govern the U.S. and other modern societies.