Hittite Laws

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

For several reasons, the Hittite Laws do not comprise a document, in the sense of an original and unchanging written record of events or information in a particular form. First, there is no original version, only several copies spanning the entire period for which written evidence exists. The earliest copy of the Hittite Laws comes from the Old Kingdom period, but internal evidence from the text suggests that the text was revised from an earlier version. Unfortunately, no copies of this earlier form have been found to date. An example of the internal evidence can be seen in the construction “Formerly … but now …” (in the Hittite language, karu … kinuna …), which is used to reduce the fine or soften the penalty for violating a law, suggesting the existence of an earlier law and penalty. For example, law 7 states, “If anyone blinds a free person or knocks out his tooth, they used to pay 40 shekels of silver. But now he shall pay 20 shekels of silver.” (One shekel of silver was the wage for one month of work for an ordinary laborer.) In law 92, which deals with the case of the theft of two or three beehives, the offender formerly would have been exposed to stinging bees, but the penalty is now monetary (6 shekels of silver). Further, errors that could be made only in the copying process exist in all the texts, indicating that these are scribal copies, not originals.

Second, the Hittite Laws cannot be considered a document because no complete version of the text exists. What we know as the Hittite Laws is actually a composite text reconstructed by modern-day scholars from fragments of various copies, with some of the laws yet unaccounted for.

Third, although several copies of certain sections of the text exist, variations among the copies indicate that scribes had some freedom in choosing how to write the text. For example, for the word person, one version may use the logographic writing, where a symbol represents the entire word, while another version may write out the word antuhšan using the syllabic signs an-tu-uh-ša-an.

Fourth, the later versions differ from the earlier versions of the laws in both spelling and grammar. Although an Old Kingdom scribe might write “he abducts” as ta-a-i-ez-zi, a New Kingdom scribe would most likely use da-a-i-ez-zi. Clearly, the Hittite scribes did not hesitate to modernize the spelling and the grammar when making copies. Finally, one late copy revises some of the laws. As an example, compare the following: The Old Kingdom version of law 7, as quoted earlier and reproduced in the accompanying document, says, “If anyone blinds a free person or knocks out his tooth, they used to pay 40 shekels of silver. But now he shall pay 20 shekels of silver. He shall look to his house for it.” The New Kingdom version says, “If anyone blinds a free man in a quarrel, he shall pay 40 shekels of silver. If it is an accident, he shall pay 20 shekels of silver” (qtd. in Hoffner, 1997, p. 21).

Even if the Hittite Laws do not constitute a document, as that term is ordinarily understood, modern scholars have a fairly good idea of the content of the laws. As already noted, there are two hundred extant laws, divided into two sections labeled, respectively, “If a man” and “If a vine,” after the first words of each section. Although modern-day scholars cannot always discern the Hittites' reasoning behind the organization of the laws, the laws within each section can be divided roughly into thematic groups for the purpose of discussion. On occasion, laws appear that do not seem to fit into a thematic group. Most of the laws are casuistic—that is, written in the form of a case—and use the format: “If such-and-such happens, then so-and-so is the penalty.”

An interesting feature of the laws is the differences in the penalty, depending on the social status of the offender or the victim—whether the person is free or a slave. If the victim is a free person, the penalty is often twice as much as if the victim is a slave. For example, the penalty for blinding a free person is 20 shekels of silver (law 7), while the penalty for blinding a slave is only 10 shekels of silver (law 8). The relationship between gender and compensation, however, is not as clear. The wages for a male harvester, for instance, are more than twice the wages for a female harvester (law 158), but the laws seem to be indifferent to the gender of a slave in assigning penalties for his or her injury or accidental death. The penalty for blinding a slave is 10 shekels (law 8), whether the slave is male or female. The selections from the abridged document reproduced here are representative of the full text of the two hundred laws.

“If a man”

In this first section, the laws can be divided into a number of thematic groups, covering crimes from homicide to abduction to arson and social arrangements such as marriage.

Homicide (laws 1–6; 37; 38; 42–44a) This section begins with penalties for manslaughter (the accidental or unintentional killing) of both free persons and slaves (laws 1–4). Law 5 deals with the special case of the premeditated murder of a merchant. The penalty is extraordinarily high (100 minas, or 4,000 shekels of silver), which suggests that merchants enjoyed either a high or a protected status. Given that financial gain could provide a greater motivation for murdering a merchant, it is not surprising that the exceptionally high penalty might be imposed as a deterrent, in the same way that killing a police officer or judge carries a stricter penalty in the United States. Law 6 deals with compensation for the heir of a person who is killed while away from home. Laws 37 and 38 and 42–44a deal with very specific cases of homicide. The reason for singling out these cases and separating them from the other homicide laws is unknown.

Personal injury (laws 7–12; 17; 18) A diverse but not exhaustive list of personal injury cases appears in this section. The cases include blinding someone or knocking out someone's tooth (laws 7–8), injuring a person's head (law 9), temporarily incapacitating a person (law 10), breaking a person's arm or leg (laws 11–12), and causing a woman to miscarry (laws 17–18).

Abduction (laws 19 and 22) This section begins with the abduction of free persons (law19). Law 22 deals with the return of and the compensation for runaway slaves.

Purity (laws 25 and 44b) Scholars are unsure how a person can be “impure in a vessel or a vat” (law 25). One scholar suggests that it is a euphemism for “urinates,” but this explanation is not certain. Law 44b concerns the proper disposal of the remnants of a purification ritual. The concern here is about contamination, which is one aspect of sorcery. Sorcery is such a serious issue that it is one of the few that the king himself must decide. (Law 111 also deals with sorcery and refers it to the king.) These laws underscore the Hittites' concern for purity.

Marriage (laws 26–36) This section contains various laws dealing with marriage, including divorce and the subsequent division of property and custody of the children, the breaking of a betrothal, and the social status of a person who marries someone of a different social status.

Land tenure (laws 40; 48; 49; 55) These sections deal with the obligations and services rendered for holding a piece of land from the king. Although the specifics of the “TUKUL-obligations” and “šahhan-services” are unknown, the consequences for failure to keep the obligation or render the service are clearly spelled out.

Implements (law 45) This law deals with the case of someone who finds implements belonging to another person. If the person returns the implements, the owner must give a reward; if the person keeps the implements, it is considered to be theft.

Theft of animals (laws 57; 60–63; 66; 70; 71) The Hittites were greatly concerned with the theft of animals, as is demonstrated by both the sheer number of cases and the penalties. The theft of each type of animal—cattle, horses, and sheep—is described in a separate law. The penalties are quite severe: In addition to returning the animal, the thief must pay restitution from two to fifteen times the number of animals. The strict penalties are most likely meant as a deterrent to theft, given the obvious importance of these animals for human survival in an agrarian society.

Accidental death of or injury to animals (laws 72; 74–80) This section provides for restitution in the case of the accidental death of an animal or penalties for injuring an animal. A contemporary reader may find some of the cases baffling. For example, in law 74, the same penalty applies for breaking the horn or the leg of an ox. Since modern oxen are often dehorned, the concern over a broken horn might seem puzzling. Certain yokes, however, require that oxen have horns. A head yoke, for instance, is attached to the horns of the ox. Although it is not known what type of yokes the Hittites used, it is possible that concern over yoking an ox was behind this penalty.

Theft, accidental death, or injury of other animals (laws 81; 87; 91; 92) This section gives further details about theft, accidental death, or injury of animals. Here the animals concerned are pigs, dogs, and bees. The thief must pay a financial penalty rather than providing a larger number of the animal stolen, as is the case for the theft of cattle, horses, or sheep. Since it is not known how the Hittites classified animals, it is unclear whether these laws are separated from the other laws because these animals were considered to belong to a different class or whether these animals were of lesser economic importance.

Unlawful entry (laws 93–97) Different types of unlawful entry are covered in this section. Here there are differences in the penalties based on the status of the offender. A free person who commits one of these crimes is fined twice as much as a slave for the same offense.

Arson (laws 98–100) In this section, the perpetrator must pay compensation equal to the goods lost in the fire. If a slave is the perpetrator of arson, the owner of the slave must either pay compensation (with the slave being disfigured) or forfeit the slave.

“If a vine”

In this second section, the laws can be arranged into thematic groups largely (but not exclusively) related to property and the land—covering its cultivation and care, along with animals kept and laborers hired to work it.

Theft of or damage to plants (laws 101; 104–109; 113) The penalties for the theft of or damage to various types of plants, such as vines or trees, are given here. Different penalties are cited, depending on the type of plant or the type of damage done.

Clay (laws 110 and 111) Law 110 deals with the theft of clay from a pit. Although scholars are unsure why this law is inserted at this point, the theme of “clay” connects it to the next law, the use of clay for sorcery. Sorcery is a serious offense that requires that the king himself deal with it.

Land tenure (law 112) This law returns to the issue of land tenure. Why this law is separated from similar laws in the first section is not known.

Theft of or damage to implements or other objects (laws 121; 122; 124–129; 131; 132; 143; 144) Fines are imposed for the theft of or damage to implements or other objects. These objects include everything from plows to doors to bricks to copper shears. Hoffner suggests that the stealing of a door would leave the owner of the house and his possessions vulnerable, explaining why the thief would be responsible for losses suffered by the owner.

Wages, hire, sales (laws 145; 149–152; 157; 159; 160; 161; 176b; 177) This section sets standards for the wages of different types of workers, including harvesters and smiths. Fees for renting various animals or implements are also given. Law 149 and laws 176b and 177 deal with the sale of slaves, both skilled and unskilled.

Obstruction of a sale (laws 146–148) The regulations regarding the obstruction of a sale appear here. The thematic link between law 148 and law 149 appears to be the idea of “sale.”

Miscellaneous laws (laws 162 and 163) There does not appear to be any theme linking these laws. Law 162a deals with irrigation, while law 163 deals with the disposal of the elements of a purification ritual for animals.

Sacred offenses (laws 164–169) Although on the surface these laws seem diverse, they are linked, according to Hoffner, by the use of the verb “to make sacred or holy again; reconsecrate.” These laws are concerned with correcting damage to both the secular and the sacred sphere of houses, fields, and boundaries.

Snakes (law 170) As Hoffner argues, the issue here is analogic magic, which is the performance of an action in one set of circumstances in order to cause a similar effect or outcome in a different set of circumstances. Thus, by killing a snake and speaking the name of another person, the intention is to cause the death of that other person.

More miscellaneous laws (laws 171–176a) This section covers topics as diverse as disinheritance (law 171), rejecting the king's judgment (law 173a), and keeping a bull outside of a corral (law 176a). Many of these laws are poorly understood. For example, scholars do not agree on what it means for a slave to “go into a clay jar” (law 173b). The scholar Richard Haase sees it as a type of discipline to cure the slave's rebellious attitude: Imagine a slave sitting in a large jar, being forced to reflect on his sins. The majority of scholars take it to be a euphemism for the death penalty, although they differ in their interpretation of the form this penalty would have taken. Part of the difficulty is that, as Hoffner points out, the verb that is translated as “rebels” (arawezzi) in older versions of the text becomes a different verb that implies rebellion with physical assault or even attempted murder (araizzi) in later versions of the text. It is possible, then, that later scribes reinterpreted this law and its punishment.

Prices (law 178) This law gives the standard prices for various bovines and equines. Setting prices was evidently a royal duty in the ancient Near East, as lists of prices also appear in both law collections and royal edicts from Mesopotamia. Many scholars regard these as reflecting actual prices.

Sexual relations (laws 187–200a) Permitted and unpermitted sexual pairings are the focus of this section. The laws describe which pairings the Hittites considered intrinsically inappropriate. For example, a man is permitted to have sexual relations with his stepmother, but only if his father is already dead (law 190). Hittite law also regulated bestiality, forbidding sexual relations between humans and cattle, sheep, pigs, and dogs. Although sexual relations with horses and mules were not penalized, such relations permanently defiled a person, making the person ineligible to go before the king or become a priest.

Apprenticeship (law 200b) The final law deals with the appropriate fees due to a master for training a person as a carpenter, smith, weaver, leather worker, or fuller.