brutal in this way–aliar lost his tongue, or a duplicitous wetnurse would
have a breast cut off. The death penalty was enacted for a number of crimes,
among which were rape, theft from the temple treasury or the palace,
ordinary theft or receiving stolen goods (including slaves), kidnapping,
keeping a tavern in which known criminals could be found without informing
the authorities, selling bad ale, and for building contractors who caused death
by putting up unsafe houses. Further capital crimes included abortion, and
helping slaves to escape.
Other punishments included exile for incest, disinheritance for unfilial
behaviour, drowning for adultery, whipping for attacking a superior, branding
for slander against a married woman, and enslavement. However, the most
common sentence was still in the form of a fine. Fines were detailed for damage,
theft, breach of contract and many other transgressions, and were expressed in
terms of double, treble or up to thirtyfold the value of the damage or theft.
The Code makes it clear that intention to commit a crime is important–
penalties for accidental hurt or damage were either minimal or not imposed.
Injury or damage caused by carelessness was another matter entirely.
Stringent conditions accompanied orders for reparation and punishment,
including warranties for workmanship and replacement of the full value of
damaged items.
The Code also demands that in order to prosecute someone for a crime,
they must be caught redhanded, and there had to be sufficient evidence
presented to confirm his guilt. Oaths were administered to witnesses, and there
were stiff penalties for perjury. Written evidence was greatly preferred to
spoken testimony, and carried much more weight with the judges. This was a
very bureaucratic society–all court judgements were written down, with the
oaths of the judges, witnesses and officials, copied to all parties, and archived
in the official department.^1
By the time of the Middle Assyrian Empire, in the mid second millennium
BC, harsh physical punishments were even more often applied.‘One Middle
Assyrian law reads“...if a woman has crushed a gentleman’s testicle in a
brawl, they shall cut off one of her fingers and if the other testicle has become
affected...or she has crushed the other testicle in a brawl, they shall tear out
both her eyes” –which casts some interesting light not only on Assyrian law
but on social behaviour of the period!’^2
The societies to which these law codes belonged were predominantly quite
small Bronze Age city communities in the region of the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers, ruled by a priestking, or by a king supported by a temple hierarchy.
They flourished from around 6,000BCdown to the final collapse of the
THE OLDEST CRIMES