@article{2013,title={Punishments Given To Slaves In Cuneiform Law},abstractNode={Agricultural activities that came out as a result of permanent settlement also brought about the need for human work force. Thus, slavery as a class arose and this class was composed of people who were under the control of their lords, used as a work force having no freedom. The Ancient Near East societies found the existence of slavery system beneficial for their small scale and closed economy. Thus, they created a class of slaves from war captives, from those who had to transfer their goods and lands as a result of growing poorer due to poor harvest, debtors who did not pay for their debts and from the ones who stood up to their families; thus punished. In order to provide the permanence of this cheap and constant labor force, they proposed certain penal sanctions within the current legal norms attributing some of the behaviors of slaves as guilt. The aim of this study is to present the penal sanctions against the acts of slaves regarded as guilt within the laws. For this aim, the study focused on Ancient Mesopotamian societies and Hittites in Anatolia both having cuneiform legal system. The behaviors requiring punishment according to the legal systems of these ancient societies were: running away from the lord’s house, a woman’s wearing scarf without the permission of her lord, slave’s stealing something and disobeying the lord. Slaves who performed such behaviors were mutilated. Additionally, the people who hide a slave running away from the lord’s house were given capital punishment},author={Yusuf KILIÇ-- Suzan AKKUŞ MUTLU},year={2013},journal={Journal of Turkish Studies}}