The Hittite laws, also known as the Code of the Nesilim, constitute an ancient legal code dating from c. 1650 – 1500 BCE. They have been preserved on a number of Hittite

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge- ...

tablets found at

Hattusa Hattusa (also Ḫattuša or Hattusas ; Hittite: URU''Ḫa-at-tu-ša'', Turkish: Hattuşaş , Hattic: Hattush) was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey, within the great loop of ...

( CTH 291-292, listing 200 laws). Copies have been found written in Old Hittite as well as in Middle and Late Hittite, indicating that they had validity throughout the duration of the

Hittite Empire The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-centr ...

(ca. 1650–1100 BCE). The Hittite laws reflected the empire's social structure, sense of justice, and morality, addressing common outlawed actions such as assault, theft, murder, witchcraft, and divorce, among others. The code is particularly notable due to a number of its provisions, covering social issues that included the humane treatment of slaves. Although they were considered lesser than free men, the slaves under the code were allowed to choose whomever they wanted to marry, buy property, open businesses, and purchase their freedom. In comparison with The Code of Assura or the

Code of Hammurabi The Code of Hammurabi is a Babylonian legal text composed 1755–1750 BC. It is the longest, best-organised, and best-preserved legal text from the ancient Near East. It is written in the Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian, purportedly by Hamm ...

, the Code of Nesilim also provided less-severe punishments for the code's violations.

Origin and development

While it is not known who exactly authored the legal document, some historians believe that its source was someone important or of high power in the Hittite society and this could even be a king. Changes were apparently made to penalties at least twice: firstly, the ''kara – kinuna'' changes, which generally reduced the penalties found in a former, but apparently unpreserved, 'proto-edition'; and secondly, the ‘Late Period’ changes to penalties in the already-modified Old Hittite version.S. M. Jauss, ''Kasuistik – Systematik – Reflexion über Recht'', in Journal for Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Law 21, 2015, 185 pp. The Hittite laws were kept in use for some 500 years, and many copies show that, other than changes in grammar, what might be called the 'original edition' with its apparent disorder, was copied slavishly; no attempt was made to 'tidy up' by placing even obvious afterthoughts in a more appropriate position. Like the

, the Hittite laws resemble many of the laws found in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Deuteronomy 22:29.

Corpus

The laws are formulated as case laws; they start with a condition, and a ruling follows, e.g. ''"If anyone tears off the ear of a male or female slave, he shall pay 3

shekel Shekel or sheqel ( akk, 𒅆𒅗𒇻 ''šiqlu'' or ''siqlu,'' he, שקל, plural he, שקלים or shekels, Phoenician: ) is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly —and became c ...

s of silver".'' The laws show an aversion to the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

; the usual penalty for serious offenses being enslavement to forced labour. They are preserved on two separate tablets, each with approximately 200 clauses, the first categorised as being ‘of a man’; the second ‘of a vine’; a third set may have existed. The laws may be categorised into eight groups of similar clauses. These are separated for the most part by two types of seemingly orphaned clauses: Sacral or incantatory clauses, and afterthoughts. This corpus and the classification scheme are based on Dewhirst (2004).Howard Dewhirst (2004), Master of Arts dissertation on Hittite law, supervised by Dr

Trevor R. Bryce Trevor Robert Bryce (; born 1940) is an Australian Hittitologist specializing in ancient and classical Near-eastern history. He is semi-retired and lives in Brisbane. His book, ''The Kingdom of the Hittites'', is popular among English-speaking ...

, University of Queensland. * I Aggression and

assault An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in cr ...

: Clauses 1 - 24 * II Marital relationships: Clauses 26 - 38 * III Obligations and service - TUKUL: Clauses 39 - 56 * IV Assaults on property and

theft Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for som ...

: Clauses 57 - 144 * V Contracts and prices: Clauses 145 - 161 * VI Sacral matters: Clauses 162 - 173 * VII

Contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tr ...

s and

tariff A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and p ...

s: Clauses 176 - 186 * VIII Sexual relationships: Clauses 187 - 200 ** §187, §188, §199 and §200 criminalise bestiality (except with horses and mules).'' Peake's commentary on the Bible'', Revised Edition (1962), ad (E-book edition) The death penalty was a common punishment among sexual crimes. ** §190 and §191 stipulate that if a man and a woman 'came together sexually willingly', and ' adintercourse', 'there shall be no punishment'. These are some of the oldest examples of

sexual consent in law Sexual consent plays an important role in laws regarding rape, sexual assault and other forms of sexual violence. In a court of law, whether or not the alleged victim had freely given consent, and whether or not they were deemed to be capable o ...

External links

The Code of the Nesilim, c. 1650-1500 BCE (Excerpts)

Literature

* E. Neu, StBoT 26 (1983) * Harry Angier Hoffner Jr., ''The Laws of the Hittites: a Critical Edition'' (DMOA 23) – Leiden, New York, Köln 1997

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hittite Laws

Laws Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...

Legal codes Ancient Near East law

Origin and development

Corpus

See also

External links

Literature

References