Why study the deep past; river-valley map; Hammurabi excerpt

Why study the deep past; river-valley map; Hammurabi excerpt: use early law codes as primary sources about power, society, and justice (C3 D2.His.1.9-12, D2.His.10.9-12). Writing began in Mesopotamia (Sumerian cuneiform, about 3200 BCE), first for records such as grain, taxes, and trade, then for laws, letters, and literature. Hammurabi of Babylon issued his code around 1754 BCE on a stone stele now in the Louvre. Its prologue says the gods called him to "bring about the rule of righteousness in the land." Punishments depended on social class (free person, commoner, enslaved person), so the code shows both a principle of public law and an unequal society. Law 196 (L. W. King translation): "If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out." But Law 198: "If he put out the eye of a freed man… he shall pay one gold mina". Same act, different punishment by class. Comparing codes: the Hebrew Bible's "eye for eye" (Exodus 21:24) and Hammurabi both use proportional retribution. Later codes, such as Rome's Twelve Tables (about 450 BCE), were also posted publicly so citizens could know the law. Source: Law 196 and Law 198. Observation: the punishment changes with the victim's status. Inference: Babylonian society was hierarchical. Limitation: a law code shows rules, not how often they were enforced. Build an evidence chart for two early law excerpts (Hammurabi and the Twelve Tables or Exodus 21). For each, list who wrote it, its date, its audience, what it protects, who is unequal, and one limitation of the source. Usual mistake: Treating a law code as proof of daily life. It tells us what rulers wanted, not exactly what happened.