Professor Martin Worthington on BBC Radio 4's 'In Our Time'

Professor Martin Worthington recently joined presenter Misha Glenny, Frances Reynolds (Shillito Fellow and Associate Professor of Assyriology at the University of Oxford) and Selena Wisnom (Lecturer in the Heritage of the Middle East at the University of Leicester) on BBC Radio 4's 'In Our Time' programme (12 February 2026) to discuss 'The Code of Hammurabi'.

Professor Martin Worthington

The Code of Hammurabi refers to the laws that Hammurabi (c1810 - c1750 BC), King of Babylon, had carved into a black basalt pillar in present day Iraq and which, since its rediscovery in 1901 in present day Iran, has affirmed Hammurabi's reputation as one of the first great lawmakers. Visitors to the Louvre in Paris can see it on display with almost 300 rules in cuneiform, covering anything from ‘an eye for an eye’ to how to handle murder, divorce, witchcraft, false accusations and more. The Code of Hammurabi, as it became known, made such an impression in Mesopotamia that it was copied and shared for a millennium after his death and, since its reemergence, Hammurabi and his Code have been commemorated in the US Capitol and the International Court of Justice.

Listen to 'The Code of Hammurabi' online on Spotify (Duration: 42 minutes).

This programme was originally broadcast on 12 February 2026, however BBC Sounds is not available to listeners outside of the UK. The broadcast was subsequently made available on podcast networks on 12 March 2026.

_{Image courtesy of BBC Radio 4.}