The class of citizens in Mesopotamia who owned land in their own right and were freemen not dependent on the palace nor on the temple, according to Hammurabi's Law Code. The threefold system of the populace was divided into awilum, muskenum, and wardum. The wardum was any slave in bondage who could be bought and sold, with a possibility of regaining freedom under certain conditions as a debtor-slave. The muskenum were, under King Hammurabi at least, persons employed by the palace who could be given land but it was not their property. The classes awilum and muskenum were not mutually exclusive. Still unanswered is the question as to which segment of the population could be conscripted to the wardum.