Editing Code of Hammurabi (section)

==Copies==
===Louvre stele===
{{multiple image
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| image1 = Tranchée de Jacques de Morgan sur l'acropole de Susa en Iran (Musée du Louvre, Arch AO 2267).jpg
| alt1 = Photograph. Refer to caption
| caption1 = The excavation of the [[Susa]] acropolis in 1897–1898, four years before the Code was found at the site
| image2 = Royal_City_and_Acropolis_Tepes.jpg
| alt2 = Photograph. Refer to caption
| caption2 = The Royal City (left) and Acropolis (right) of Susa in 2007
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}}
The first copy of the text found, and still the most complete, is on a {{height|m=2.25}} [[stele]]. The stele is now displayed on the ground floor of the [[Louvre]], in Room 227 of the Richelieu wing.{{Sfnp|Louvre|n.d.}} At the top is an image of Hammurabi with [[Shamash]], the Babylonian [[sun god]] and god of justice. Below the image are about 4,130 lines of [[cuneiform]] text: One-fifth contains a prologue and epilogue, while the remaining four-fifths contain what are generally called the laws.{{sfnp|Roth|1995b|pp=15–16}} Near the bottom, seven columns of the laws, each with more than eighty lines, were polished and erased in antiquity.{{sfnp|Roth|1995a|p=74}} The stele was found in three large fragments and reconstructed.{{sfnp|Scheil|1902|p=12}} It is {{height|cm=225}} high, with a circumference is {{height|cm=165}} at the summit and {{height|cm=190}} at the base.{{sfnp|Scheil|1902|p=12}} Hammurabi's image is {{height|cm=65}} high and {{height|cm=60}} wide.{{sfnp|Scheil|1902|p=12}}

The Louvre stele was found at the site of the ancient Elamite city of [[Susa]]. Susa is in modern-day [[Khuzestan Province]], Iran (Persia at the time of excavation). The stele was excavated by the French Archaeological Mission under the direction of [[Jacques de Morgan]].{{sfnp|Roth|1995b|pp=23–24}} Father [[Jean-Vincent Scheil]] published the initial report in the fourth volume of the ''Reports of the Delegation to Persia'' ({{lang|fr|Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse}}). According to Scheil, the stele's fragments were found on the [[tell (archaeology)|tell]] of the Susa acropolis ({{lang|fr|l'Acropole de Suse}}), between December 1901 and January 1902.{{sfnp|Scheil|1902|p=12}} The few, large fragments made assembly easy.{{sfnp|Scheil|1902|p=12}}

Scheil hypothesised that the stele had been taken to Susa by the Elamite king [[Shutruk-Nakhunte]] and that he had commissioned the erasure of several columns of laws to write his legend there.{{sfnp|Scheil|1902|p=12}} It has been proposed that the relief portion of the stele, especially the beards of Hammurabi and Shamash, was reworked at the same time.<ref>Ornan, Tallay, "Unfinished Business: the Relief on the Hammurabi Louvre Stele Revisited", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 71, pp. 85–109, 2019</ref> Roth suggests the stele was taken as plunder from Sippar,{{sfnp|Roth|1995b|pp=21–22}} where Hammurabi lived towards the end of his reign.{{sfnp|Driver|Miles|1952|pp=29–30}}

===Other copies===
Fragments of a second and possibly third stele recording the Code were found along with the Louvre stele at Susa.{{sfnp|Roth|1995a|p=73}} Over fifty manuscripts containing the laws are known. They were found not only in Susa but also in Babylon, [[Nineveh]], [[Assur]], [[Borsippa]], [[Nippur]], [[Sippar]], Ur, Larsa, and more.{{sfnp|Roth|1995b|p=20}} Copies were created during Hammurabi's reign, and also after it, since the text became a part of the scribal curriculum.{{sfnmp|1a1=Driver|1a2=Miles|1y=1952|1pp=25–56|2a1=Van De Mieroop|2y=2016|2p=145}} Copies have been found dating from one thousand years after the stele's creation,{{sfnp|Roth|1995a|p=74}} and a catalog from [[Library of Ashurbanipal|the library]] of [[Neo-Assyrian Empire|Neo-Assyrian]] king [[Ashurbanipal]] (685–631 BC) lists a copy of the "judgments of Hammurabi".{{sfnp|Van De Mieroop|2016|p=147}} The additional copies fill in most of the stele's original text, including much of the erased section.{{sfnp|Roth|1995a|p=74}}