Jerusalem (dpa) - Israeli archaeologists have for the first time uncovered a fragment of a document containing a law code which parallels that of the ancient Code of Hammurabi, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced Monday.

The fragment, dating from the 18th-17th centuries BC, was discovered during excavations at Hazor, in the north of the country during the summer, the university said.

The fragments, written in Akkadian cuneiform script, likely refer to issues of personal injury law relating to slaves and masters, as gleaned from the words deciphered so far, which include "master," "slave," and a word referring to bodily parts, apparently the word for "tooth."

According to Professor Wayne Horowitz of the Hebrew University who is preparing the code for publication, the style of the text is similar to that of the Hammurabi Code, the ancient laws enacted by the Babylonian king in the 18th century BC, fragments of which were discovered in what is now Iran over 100 years ago.

"At this stage, it is difficult to determine whether this document was actually written at Hazor, where a school for scribes was located, or brought from somewhere else," Horowitz said.

These two fragments are the 18th and 19th cuneiform finds from the Hazor excavations, which now form the largest collection of documents of cuneiform texts found in Israel.

Previous documents dealt with such subjects as the dispatch of people or goods, a legal dispute involving a local woman, and a text of multiplication tables.