There is in the Louvre a diorite stela from the 18th century BC, on which are inscribed the 282 laws of the Code of Hammurabi: pretty much the earliest recorded set of laws we have (centuries older than Exodus, it includes the principle of 'an eye for an eye') - at a stretch, it might almost be called the world's first written constitution. There's a picture of it in the British Museum, near the Stela of Nabonidus. Made of basalt, 58 cm high by 46 cm wide, and dating from the sixth century BC, this has carved on it in bas-relief a figure wearing the traditional dress of a Babylonian king, who is thought to be Nabonidus, the last ruler of Babylon before it was conquered by Cyrus the Great of Persia in 539 BC. Very crudely speaking, these two artefacts bookend the period of (uneven) Babylonian supremacy in Mesopotamia.

LRB 3 February 2005 | PDF Download