Old Babylonian · About 1792-1750 BC

Hammurabi's Babylon and the law

Hammurabi turned Babylon from a small city-state into the capital of Mesopotamia and carved his laws in stone for all to see. Students find his conquests on the map, read his laws and judge them against their own idea of justice.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, 1754 BC
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Hammurabi turned Babylon from a small city-state into the capital of Mesopotamia and carved his laws in stone for all to see. Students find his conquests on the map, read his laws and judge them against their own idea of justice.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate Babylon and the cities Hammurabi conquered.
  • Describe the Code of Hammurabi and how it treated different social classes.
  • Compare one of Hammurabi's laws with a law of today.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

1754 BC

Babylon on the Euphrates

Open the map in 1754 BC and turn on Historical Events and Cities. Find Babylon and the marker for Hammurabi's laws. Which river runs through the city?

Open this view on the map
b

1760 BC

Uniting the rivers

Zoom out. In the 1760s BC Hammurabi conquered Larsa in the south and Mari up the Euphrates. Find both rivers: why did controlling them matter so much?

Open this view on the map
c

1754 BC

Where the stele was found

Travel east to Susa. Elamite raiders carried Hammurabi's law stone here centuries later, and archaeologists found it in 1901. Why would an invading army take a law stone as loot?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Hammurabi had his laws carved in stone and set up in public. Why put laws where people could see them?
  2. Punishments in the code depended on whether the victim was a noble, a commoner or enslaved. Is that justice? Why or why not?
  3. "An eye for an eye" sounds harsh. Could it also have limited revenge? Explain.
  4. The top of the stele shows Hammurabi before the sun god of justice. Why would a king link his laws to a god?
  5. Which of Hammurabi's ideas still exist in our laws today?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Cyrus the Great, who took Babylon more than 1,200 years after Hammurabi. Discuss: Cyrus also presented himself as a just ruler. How did both kings use the idea of justice to win the loyalty of their people?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.