The 282 laws are one of the earliest and more complete written legal codes from ancient times. The codes have served as a model for establishing justice in other cultures and are believed to have influenced laws established by Hebrew scribes, including those in the Book of Exodus. The codes were originally carved into a massive monolith of black diorite, eight feet high. Lost for centuries after the fall of Babylon in 1595 BCE, the pillar was rediscovered in ruins of the Elamite city of Susa in 1901.
