1/28/14 west civ class

              We continued to talk more about the Sumerians today in class and about how they made settlements more detailed and easier to live in. The Sumerians made one of the worlds first calendars based on the moon, they also divided the time into what we use still today (60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in a hour). As their settlements grew bigger the people started new religions so they could express their ideas. Pantheon of Sumerian Gods and Goddesses emerged with many deities representing the natural elements. Stories were told, like the first surviving epic we discovered was the Sumerian "Epic of Gilgamesh" which told of a great flood. Also because of so many people living in these settlements the first series of written laws were formed. The most oldest set of laws was "Hammurabi's Code" made by king Hammurabi of Babylon. His laws were based off "an eye for an eye" and would seem very strange in todays for society. For some examples:

1. Anyone who steals a child is killed (14)
2. If a mans wife has caused her husband to be killed, the woman shall be impaled (153)
3. If a son strikes his father, his hands shall be cut off

   I find these laws to be very harsh and way too extreme. One of these laws isn't even a crime and the other two shouldn't be punishable by death. People should only have to go to jail for those crimes, that's why I think Hammurabi should have created jails so he could keep his people from dying out. I'm surprised that he wasn't the one who created jails because he has very large amount of very strict laws.