Learning, Achieving, Succeeding!
September 26, 2023
Valley Stream Central High School District

Learning, Achieving, Succeeding!

September 26, 2023

Memorial Social Studies Students Learn About the Code of Hammurabi

November 8, 2022

Valley Stream Memorial Junior High School students in Nicole Meisner’s 9th grade social studies class had the opportunity to study the ancient Code of Hammurabi text this October. As part of the lesson, the students reproduced their own cuneiform as they learned about the Code’s history and significance.

The Code of Hammurabi is considered one of the best-preserved legal texts of the ancient Middle East. Carved on a slab of basalt roughly 3,700 years ago in cuneiform—the oldest known writing system—it is a snapshot into the laws that governed ancient Babylonian society under King Hammurabi. Ancient Babylon was located in modern day Iraq.

The Memorial students in Ms. Meisner’s class discussed the historic importance of the code, and answered questions to check their understanding of the lesson. They then etched in clay a word in cuneiform that they felt described the Code.

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The students also demonstrated their understanding of the code, which is one of the earliest surviving examples of legal text.

As part of the lesson, the students carved a word in cuneiform, which is the ancient script the code was carved in.

Memorial students in Nicole Meisner’s 9th grade social studies class studied the Code of Hammurabi this October.