Laws of Eshnunna

The Laws of Eshnunna are an ancient Mesopotamian legal collection, inscribed on cuneiform tablets in the Akkadian language and dated to around 1930 BC, making them among the oldest known law codes and predating the more famous Code of Hammurabi by roughly a century. Two sets of tablets were excavated in 1945 and 1947 by Iraq's Directorate of Antiquities, led by Taha Baqir, at the site of Tell Abu Harmal near Baghdad, with a further fragment later found at Me-Turan. The surviving text preserves nearly sixty sections, written in a conditional if-then style, covering theft, sexual offenses, bodily injury and property damage, with penalties ranging from monetary fines to death, and it distinguishes legal treatment between free persons, the awilum, and a subordinate class, the muskenum. The code also contains what is thought to be the earliest recorded legal provision addressing rabies, requiring owners of a dog known to be dangerous to restrain it and imposing a substantial fine if it caused a fatal injury.