Thread by @Schandillia

This is Urukagina. He ruled the Ancient Sumerian city of Lagash in the 24th century BC. More than 600 years before Hammurabi, he issued humanity’s first ever code of law. We call them Urukagina’s Liberty Cones (there were two).

Here’s why this was a major legal milestone…

Urukagina’s Cones banned many unethical practices including usury and property seizure, and restricted the power of priesthood. It’s here that the word “freedom” (Ama-gi in Sumerian) made its debut. First time in all human history!

But there’s one more reason these cones are a milestone. They banned polyandry. Until then, both men and women were free to have multiple partners. Not anymore. At least not the women. Men could still have as many wives as they wished.

Wives, not just women.

Marriage as a custom didn’t exist until that point. Cohabitation and copulation was the norm, no strings attached.

Urukagina changed that. He established the institution of marriage where such unions were duly solemnized and accorded State protection.

2350 BC. That’s the year marriage came into being. We don’t know anything about the first married couple though.

But we do know that there was no provision for divorce. Widows were exempted from taxation and could possibly remarry.

While celebrated for its unprecedented liberal outlook, Urukagina’s law code was curiously harsh on polyandry. Guilty women were to be stoned to death. Married women found hitting on other men were to have their mouth crushed with burnt bricks.

Nothing for adulterous men though.

So that’s the short story of marriage and polygamy. If this sounds similar to the Abrahamic religions’ attitude toward marriage and sexuality, it’s for a reason.

By the way, take a look at Urukagina once again and see if you notice something. The hat he’s wearing?

It’s a shepherd’s hat. Urukagina, like other Sumerian kings before and after him, fashioned himself as a sipa lugal or “shepherd king.” The king as a shepherd leading his flock, his subjects…the metaphor is easy to see.

Does this remind you of Jesus?