Ancient Near Eastern Lawgivers (Mesopotamia)

Ancient Near Eastern Lawgivers (Mesopotamia) gathers the lawgivers of the ancient Near East, the rulers and judges of Mesopotamia and neighboring Near Eastern civilizations who issued or administered some of the earliest known written law in human history, centuries before the Greek and Roman legal traditions grouped elsewhere in this subcategory. Their codes, inscribed on stone or clay and covering everything from property and contract to criminal punishment, are the deepest historical roots this entire subcategory's ancient legal tradition reaches back to.