Hazor 18: Fragments of a cuneiform law collection from Hazor

Two fragments of a traditional cuneiform law collection of the type best known from the Laws of Hammurabi were recovered in the Hazor excavations in the summer of 2010. The fragments, inscribed on local clay and dating from the Middle Bronze Age, preserve parts of seven laws. A group of laws on the larger fragment (fragment A) concerns the hire of slaves to third parties and compensation to be paid to the owner of the slave in the case of injury to the slave. The presence of a law collection in cuneiform at Hazor confirms the place of Middle Bronze Age Hazor as a western cuneiform centre of the first rank.