[HN Gopher] Grand Statements About Justice: On the Laws of Ur-Namma
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Grand Statements About Justice: On the Laws of Ur-Namma
        
       Author : diodorus
       Score  : 23 points
       Date   : 2021-11-12 05:13 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.laphamsquarterly.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.laphamsquarterly.org)
        
       | retrac wrote:
       | Not only were the ancient Mesopotamians probably the first people
       | to invent codified laws, but they were the first people to drown
       | themselves in legal paperwork. The legalistic nature might be
       | hard to overstate. In Sippar north of Babylon c. 1600 BC we find
       | the majority of homes have written legal contracts and property
       | deeds. A few homes are stuffed with archives of legal paperwork
       | related to the businesses and lives of the owners. As later law
       | codes state, many forms of commercial transaction relating to
       | property, slaves, gold or basically anything particularly
       | valuable, were illegal (and presumed the owner a thief) without
       | transfer of the written deeds with witnesses.
       | 
       | And like my favourite Sumerian proverb says "A harsh mouth brings
       | litigation documents."
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-11-14 23:01 UTC)