"Work and Wages in the Code of Hammurabi"

This article presents a comparative analysis of wage specifications for different types of worker in the Code of Hammurabi (1972-1950 BC) and in administrative documents. The analysis focuses primarily on the paragraphs of the Code that relate to different occupations or professions and their respective wages (especially paragraphs 215-277), without neglecting the information to be found in other paragraphs of the Code. Different aspects of Mesopotamian economic organization during the Old Babylonian period -especially agriculture and livestock farming- are investigated on the basis of data from both the Code and the economic documents, with special reference to the wages of different kinds of worker: agricultural labourers, shepherds, hired labourers, gardeners, artisans, weavers, builders, boatmen (and other workers), and finally doctors and veterinarians who were paid on the basis of the difficulty of the treatment and the category of patient. In the conclusions the author provides a reconstruction of the economic landscape of the Old Babylonian period.