The Code of Hammurabi Regulates Female Tavern Keepers

Around 1750 BCE, a collection of legal judgments issued under the Babylonian king Hammurabi included several provisions concerning female tavern keepers and the sale of beer. One provision addressed the exchange rate between beer and grain, prescribing severe punishment when a tavern keeper accepted silver but supplied less beer than the corresponding quantity of grain required. Another made a tavern keeper responsible for reporting conspirators who gathered in her establishment. The feminine terminology used in these provisions indicates that women operated taverns and participated directly in the commercial distribution of beer. The judgments did not establish a comprehensive brewing law or define beer quality in modern terms, nor do they prove that all Babylonian tavern keepers were women. They nevertheless provide important evidence that women held visible economic roles within Mesopotamian beer culture and that their businesses were subject to royal regulation.