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Show Written Laws Go Back Many Years Dr. Samuel N. Cramer, curator of the Tablet Colection of the University Uni-versity of Pennsylvania museum, recently discovered that the history his-tory of written laws extends back to 2500 B.C. which is at least a century earlier than heretofore believed. Dr. Cramer mado his discovery dis-covery by translating a clay tablet, found in Istanbul. Dr. Cramer's discovery is the fourth time since the turn of the century that scholars have turned back the beginning of the history of written law. The interesting part of the discovery is that it establishes es-tablishes the fact that there were written laws 1,700 years before the time of Christ, violators of which were fined certain fixed 'sums of money. The translation of three of the laws showed these fines: 1. "If a man with . . an instrument instru-ment his foot has cut off, ten silver shekels, he shall pay." 2. "If a man to. a man with a weapon his bones of . . . severed, one silver mina (60 chekels), ho shall pay." 3. "If a man to a man with a geshpu instrument the nose has cut off, two-thirds of a silver mina he shall pay." Laws have greatly advanced since that day and tend to bring prnishment in line with the nature of the crime. No longer does it cost only ten shekels if one cuts off a foot. Nor is the severing of another's nose taken quite so lightly. |
