The world’s oldest complaint, dated 1750 BC.
Wednesday, 12 Mar 2025
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Ea-nasir. His name shall go down in history for how shitty his copper really was.
For those wondering:
> Tell Ea-nasir: Nanni sends the following message:
>
> When you came, you said to me as follows : “I will give Gimil-Sin (when he comes) fine quality copper ingots.” You left then but you did not do what you promised me. You put ingots which were not good before my messenger (Sit-Sin) and said: “If you want to take them, take them; if you do not want to take them, go away!”
>
> What do you take me for, that you treat somebody like me with such contempt? I have sent as messengers gentlemen like ourselves to collect the bag with my money (deposited with you) but you have treated me with contempt by sending them back to me empty-handed several times, and that through enemy territory. Is there anyone among the merchants who trade with Telmun who has treated me in this way? You alone treat my messenger with contempt! On account of that one (trifling) mina of silver which I owe(?) you, you feel free to speak in such a way, while I have given to the palace on your behalf 1,080 pounds of copper, and umi-abum has likewise given 1,080 pounds of copper, apart from what we both have had written on a sealed tablet to be kept in the temple of Samas.
How have you treated me for that copper? You have withheld my money bag from me in enemy territory; it is now up to you to restore (my money) to me in full.
>
> Take cognizance that (from now on) I will not accept here any copper from you that is not of fine quality. I shall (from now on) select and take the ingots individually in my own yard, and I shall exercise against you my right of rejection because you have treated me with contempt.
r/ReallyShittyCopper
If Gilgamesh is humanity’s oldest hero, then Ea Nasir is humanity’s oldest con artist
Ancient shredded wheat.
hit em with the “yeah lemme get some GOLD” actually gives pyrite instead
It’s fascinating to think how he mus have angrily sharpened his reed and prepared his clay tablet and sat down to throw some Mesopotamian shade: https://www.reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/s/peRQaC4yXT
“I hope this slab finds you well” and “as per my last slab” aaah freaky slab
>Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
>Bright copper kettles leave… flakes on my mittens?!
>Hey, these are stone with a copper vaneer!
>I’ve been bamboozled by Ea-Nasir!
>When an Ur guy
>Sells Nanni things
>But the copper’s bad,
>He simply records his complaint for all time
>”I got a bad deal
>I’m maaaaaaad”
-Randall Munroe
*customer support ticket still pending*
I mean, you could sell good quality copper ingots or become a Legend for the ages. Ea-nasir chose to become a Legend
r/ReallyShittyCopper
As per my previous stone tablet
The forbidden shredded wheat.
It’s not just the oldest written complaint, it’s one of, if not the oldest artifact of writing we have.
At first glance I wondered why there was a piece of Shredded Wheat in a museum.
I’ll bet they’re STILL mad
Did she want to talk to the manager?
I love this. The complaint engraved in stone is just priceless
Y’all should read the Letter from Iddin-Sin to Zinu. It’s about a kid complaining to his mother that she doesn’t love him because he doesn’t have nice enough clothes.
UMmmmmm. Meaningful Wheatabix.
Forbidden mini wheat
Giant miniwheat?
There’s a sub already dedicated to this.
/r/reallyshittycopper
World’s oldest recorded* complaint known*
Every time i see this picture, i think it’s a shredded wheat
Bet the postmen were absolutely jacked back in the day
Did he go with something like „your momma is so fat that she has broken Anubis scales, yo“?
EA nasir
“Challenge Everything”
The translation of the tablet actually reads: *”We have been trying to reach you about your chariot’s extended warranty.”*
And if the words don’t work, it can always be used as a weapon.
1750 BC: Oi! This is not what I ordered! 2024 AD: Oi! This is not what I ordered!
That goddamn Ea-Nasir
Similarly, the oldest know use of a phonetic alphabet was written on a Canaanite beard comb dated to around 1700 BCE and read “May this tusk root lice from the beard”.
Love how some of the earliest surviving writing is from people who were just so over it.
If I didn’t know that other societies were far more advanced at that point in history, I would’ve thought it was by a german. Who else puts that much work in a complain?
Probably took 2 months to make
Oh back from when we all had more free time
I bet his HOA buried this tablet with all the other complaints.
The Proto-Karen
r/reallyshittycopper
And this was found in Ea-Nasir’s house! Alongside other complaints! Dude kept his hate-mail!
Soon as I read “worlds oldest complaint” I knew it was gonna be about some really shitty copper.
Imagine being a mailman and having a bag full of stone tablets. Your legs would be huge!
The world’s 1st Karen.
Looks like a frosted wheat without the frosting
Babaloynian Karen. There’s a missing tablet where she asked to speak to a manager.
Imagine archeologists finding your phone and looking through your text messages 4000 years later lol.