They buy it cheap and seal it for alote
The Code of Hammurabi can tell us much about ancient Babylonian society, but cannot show us everything. The law code was written for the audience of Babylonian people in its own day, especially the scribes and officers of the law. So there are many questions we would have from a distance much later in history that people then would have understood without needing explanation. The intention of the law code was to inform people of laws and punishments, not to give later generations a full view of the whole of Babylonian life. The law code was prepared by those in power in the government of Hammurabi -- we don't get any response from the people or indication of how the people then viewed the laws. And ultimately, the law code is written in a detached, impersonal way -- as legal documents generally are written. We don't get a feel for the personal lives or feelings of people living at that time in Babylonia.
