Dear Ana Maria,
You have indeed embarked upon a fascinating journey in your effort to
trace the evolution of law. As I understand it, you were hoping to
find a copy of the text of the earliest introduction to the concept of
“Talion,” or “lex talionis,” that is to say, the law of retribution
or retaliation, i.e. “an eye for an eye.” You’ve state your current
understanding is that it was in the Code of Dungi where this concept
was first introduced. However, from my research online it would seem
that this is not the case. The concept of “lex talionis” appears to
have been first introduced in the Code of Hammurabi about 1770 B.C.
Furthermore, it does not appear that there exists a written record of
Dungi’s Code, at least by that name, although King Dungi of Ur is
briefly mentioned in a few places. For example, one source says that
Ur rose to prominence in ancient Sumeria around 2070 B.C., and “The
greatest ruler of this era was a man called Dungi. He was an able
administrator and compiled the Law Code of Dungi, which predated the
Code of Hammurabi by some three centuries.” (
http://www.barr-family.com/godsword/philistines.htm )
But although there are a few other mentions of King Dungi in ancient
history texts, the sources are by no means in agreement on his exact
placement in time. In fact, one source states there may actually have
been two rulers by the name of Dungi, separated in time by about 450
years. To add to the confusion, if this is the case, according to this
particular source, either one would have lived much earlier than three
centuries before Hammurabi, which is the time ascribed to the earliest
written law code. See this link:
http://www.ccel.org/pipeline/1-html/4-schaff-encyc01-articles/Page%20406.htm
And there is another mention of Dungi here:
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_Empire
Also, rather than “Dungi’s Code,” it is the “Ur-Nammu Code,” which is
generally agreed to be the earliest written code of laws in the world.
There is an earlier code, that of Urukagina, but as one source
states, “This code has never been discovered but it is mentioned in
other documents as a consolidation of existing ‘ordinances’ or laws
laid down by Mesopotamian kings.” (
http://www.duhaime.org/Law_museum/hist.htm )
As to the authorship of the “Ur-Nammu Code.” some sources say that
although there was a king by the name of Ur-Nammu, who is generally
credited with its creation, these laws were actually written by his
son Shugli. Now this fact is very interesting because in another
place, it is state that “Shugli” is actually another name for “Dungi,”
and so the Ur-Nammu code may actually be the Code of Dungi by another
name.
Another reference says, “Ur-Nammu the restored stele of Ur-Nammu from
Ur, c. 2060-1955 B.C., shows the Ur-Nammu Law Code was produced by the
founder of the third dynasty or Ur and builder of the best preserved
ziggurat in Mesopotamia. He ruled from 2112 to 2095 B.C. Twenty-nine
laws are extant, which leads to the Hammurabi Code in 1728 to 1686
with 282 laws after receiving them from the god Shamash.” (
http://www.mazzaroth.com/ChapterThree/SumerianInfoOfAnnunaki-Anakim.htm
)
But the Ur-Nammu code is consistently dated by most sources to
approximately three hundred years before the Code of Hammurabi, so how
this squares with the dates given above for the reign of either of the
Dungis is still open to question. Just to make things interesting,
here's a source that talks about “A granite bowl of Naram-Sin of Agade
(2550 B.C.), which ... (about 2250 B.C.) was presented to the temple
at Ur by the daughter of king Dungi (or, Shulgi).”
(http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:VsMV-2rFDhsJ:www.earth-history.com/Ancient-texts/Sacred/cave/cave-of-treasures-abraham-city-of-ur.htm+ur+dungi&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
) This date is different still from the time frame ascribed above to
the two possible reigns of Dungi, further adding to the confusion
about dates. So, for purposes of this answer, I’ll leave the exact
placement in time of Dungi, and precise authorship of the Code of
Ur-Nammu open and proceed to discuss the code itself.
Here it is stated of Ur-Nammu’s Code that it is “The earliest known
written legal code of which a copy has been found, albeit a copy in
such poor shape that only five articles can be deciphered.” (
http://www.duhaime.org/Law_museum/hist.htm ) This copy is contained
in the Schøyen Collection, which “ is located mainly in Oslo and
London. Scholars are always welcome, and are strongly encouraged to do
research and to publish material. Parts of the collection are
deposited with universities and public libraries to facilitate access
for scholars. Over 90 % of the MSS are unpublished at present.”
Please see this link for further information:
http://www.nb.no/baser/schoyen/intro.html
It is MS 2064 that contains the Ur-Nammu Law Code, which is a “code of
57 laws including criminal law, family law, inheritance law, labour
law including slave rights, and agricultural and commercial tariffs.”
( http://www.nb.no/baser/schoyen/5/5.4/index.html#8.1 )
In addition, there is a further project, i.e. “The Electronic Text
Corpus of Sumerian Literature” which “ is based at the University of
Oxford. Its aim is to make accessible, via the World Wide Web, over
400 literary works composed in the Sumerian language in ancient
Mesopotamia during the late third and early second millennia BC.”
Although the Law Code of Ur-Nammu is listed, it does not yet appear to
be available electronically, although that may change in the future.
As a scholar working in the area of law history, however, you may be
able to obtain some further assistance. Please see this link:
http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/index.htm and this:
http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/catalogue/law (scroll to the very end
of this one to see the catalogue number for the Ur-Nammu Code.)
As for the origin of Talion, or the doctrine of lex talionis, and its
connection to the earlier laws, whether the Code of Dungi or the
Ur-Nammu Code (even if they are one and the same), as the description
at the Schoyen Collection page states, “Hammurabi's laws represented
the inhuman Law of Retaliation, "an Eye for an Eye". One would expect
the 300 years older laws of Ur-Nammu would be even more brutal, but
the opposite is the case: "If a man knocks out the eye of another man,
he shall weigh out 1/2 a mina of silver".
Therefore it would seem that, contrary to what your previous sources
have stated, the earlier code, whether written by Ur-Nammu or Shugli,
or Dungi, is not actually the earliest source of this particular
doctine. That distinction appears to belong to the Code of Hammurabi,
of which we do have written texts. Here is a link where you may find
that text, in case you don’t already have it:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/hamcode.html#text , and
another, here: http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/CODE.HTM .
There are other codes which follow that of Ur-Nammu and also predate
the Code of Hammurabi. These include the Laws of Lipit-Ishtar and the
Laws of Eshunna. It is of interest to note that at least one source
claims that none of the codes prior to Eshunna, however, were actually
codes of law, but were instead merely “collections, within the
framework of royal inscriptions, of independent legal decrees issued
by various kings to meet specific problems.” (
http://www.bible-history.com/babylonia/index.html )
For more information about these other codes, you might like to read a
scholarly paper entitled “The Development Of Ancient Mesopotamian Law”
at this site: http://www.gmalivuk.com/otherstuff/fall02/danking.htm
, which also mentions these other earlier codes, and how they relate
to Hammurabi’s code. In particular, the author states that
“Repercussions in Hammurabi’s codes differ from previous codes in one
major respect – the use of lex talionis, the principle of “eye for an
eye”. The clause that has made this phrase known occurs in the middle
of the codes, “if an awilu should blind the eye of another awilu, they
shall blind his eye” (xi 45-9). The next many clauses all deal with
this talion notion. This standard provides for severe penalties. In
addition, other punishments mentioned are death by drowning, burning,
impaling and execution with weapons. Why would a law code supposedly
more advanced use a practice of law seemingly more barbaric to handle
disputes? One possible explanation offered is that “this severity,
which so contrasts with Sumerian judicial tradition, can be traced
back to the Amorite influence” (Britannica, 875). This argument is
founded on the assumption that Sumerians and Akkadians were culturally
very distinct, and that lex talonis was well founded in Akkadian
rule.”
So, in summary, if you are tracing the earliest written record of the
principle of Talion, that is almost certainly contained within the
Code of Hammurabi, and is likely a feature of Akkadian culture
superimposed upon an existing, less brutal system of Sumerian law, of
which the earliest known written code is that of Ur-Nammu, which may
(or may not) have been written by Dungi of Ur.
I hope this information is helpful to you as you research this topic
for your book and dissertation. If anything isn’t clear or needs
further explanation, please do use the “Request Clarfication” feature
before rating and closing your question, so I can be sure I’ve
provided you with an adequate answer that will fill your needs in this
regard. Thank you again for the opportunity to assist you with this
matter. I look forward to seeing further questions on this subject as
you proceed with your research.
Best regards,
--Byrd
Here are a few more links to sites with related historical
information:
--Mesopotamia: The First Civilization:
http://socsci.gulfcoast.edu/rbaldwin/mesopotamia.htm
--Bibliography for further reading on history of Mesopotamian law:
http://www.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/meso.htm
--Explication of the Code of Hammurabi:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/hamcode.html
--Simplified BC historical timeline:
http://www.didyouknow.cd/history/bc.htm
Search strategy:
“Dungi’s code”
Dungi Sumeria
Dungi “law code”
Ur Dungi
From the returns on these initial searches, I then searched more
specifically on additional terms, including:
“ancient history” law
history law OR legal
Sumeria OR Mesopotamia
Ur-Nammu
Urukagina
ancient law codes
history “lex talionis” |
