Reply To: Social stratification in the Ancient Near East

[Jessi Willeto]

I think of the video we watched where we learned about Hammurabi’s code, at the very last second you said eye for an eye doesn’t count if it’s between a slave and a citizen. Property laws and civil laws changed depending on what social standing you were placed in. The carved vessel of Uruk is a great example showing different social standings, literally a hierarchy as the registers go down. Up top we have Inanna, and the priest-king, the highest standing social rank, and then on the second register there are naked men whose purpose only seems to be to deliver/produce the food. The lowest tiers are the source of food and economy itself. It shows us that a society during those days could not run without the foundation of producers and delivers.