Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1915 — LAW CODE 4,000 YEARS OLD [ARTICLE]

LAW CODE 4,000 YEARS OLD

Acts on Babylonian Tablet Provided for Elopement and for Injury to Women. . New Haven, Conn. —A Babylonian tablet, believed to have been buried in the earth more than four thousand years and containing the earliest law code, recently has been unearthed, and is now in possession of Yale university. The tablet is heavily encrusted but part of it has been cleaned and deciphered. The laws are written in the Sumerian language, the language of Southern Babylonia, prior to its conquest by the Semites or Accadians, in the time of Hammerabi. Owing to the imperfect knowledge of the language, the work of deciphering is extremely difficult, but the university expects to have complete translations made and published. The laws that have been translated refer to legislation; concerning injury to women; the repudiation of children who have perhaps been adopted; elopement; ‘the hire of boats and cattle; and provision for the killing of a hired ox by a lion. These laws are believed to have been written about 2500 B. C.