The complaint tablet to Ea-nāṣir ( 81) is a

clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian language, Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay t ...

that was sent to the ancient city-state Ur, written . The tablet, which measures high and wide, documents a transaction in which

Ea-nāṣir Ea-nāṣir () was a copper merchant who lived in Ur during the mid-18th century BCE. He was a member of the Alik Tilmun, a guild of merchants based in Dilmun, and was active during the 11th and 19th regnal years of the Larsa ruler Rim-Sîn I ...

, a trader, allegedly sold sub-standard copper to a customer named Nanni. Nanni, dissatisfied with the quality, wrote a

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

complaint addressing the poor service and mistreatment of his servant. Discovered by

Sir Leonard Woolley Sir Charles Leonard Woolley (17 April 1880 – 20 February 1960) was a British archaeologist best known for his excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia. He is recognized as one of the first "modern" archaeologists who excavated in a methodical way, k ...

in Ur, it is currently kept in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. Written in Akkadian cuneiform, this tablet is recognized as the "Oldest Customer Complaint" by

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...

. From 2015 onwards, the tablet's content and Ea-nāṣir in particular gained popularity as an

internet meme An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...

, due to its relatable subject matter in expressing dissatisfaction with goods.

Description

The tablet is high, wide, thick, and slightly damaged.

Content

The tablet details that Ea-nāṣir travelled to

Dilmun Dilmun, or Telmun, ( Sumerian: ,Transliteration: Similar text: later 𒉌𒌇(𒆠), NI.TUKki = dilmunki; ) was an ancient East Semitic–speaking civilization in Eastern Arabia mentioned from the 3rd millennium BC onwards. Based on contextual ...

to buy

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

and returned to sell it in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

. On one particular occasion, he had agreed to sell copper

ingot An ingot is a piece of relatively pure material, usually metal, that is Casting, cast into a shape suitable for further processing. In steelmaking, it is the first step among semi-finished casting products. Ingots usually require a second procedu ...

s to Nanni. Nanni sent his servant with the money to complete the transaction. The copper was considered by Nanni to be sub-standard and was not accepted. In response, Nanni produced the cuneiform letter for delivery to Ea-nāṣir. Inscribed on it is a complaint to Ea-nāṣir about a copper delivery of the incorrect grade and issues with another delivery; Nanni also complained that his servant (who handled the transaction) had been treated rudely. He stated that, at the time of writing, he had not accepted the copper, but had paid for it. Ea-nāṣir was part of a group of traders called alik Tilmun, or "Dilmun traders". He is known from other texts to have been active in the 11th and 19th regnal years of the

Larsa Larsa (, read ''Larsamki''), also referred to as Larancha/Laranchon (Gk. Λαραγχων) by Berossus, Berossos and connected with the biblical Arioch, Ellasar, was an important city-state of ancient Sumer, the center of the Cult (religious pra ...

ruler

Rim-Sîn I Rim-Sîn I (, Dri-im- Dsuen) ruled the ancient Near East city-state of Larsa from 1822 BC to 1763 BC ( MC). His sister En-ane-du was high priestess of the moon god in Ur. Rim-Sin I was a contemporary of Hammurabi of Babylon and Irdanene of Uru ...

Acquisition

The tablet was discovered and acquired by Sir

Leonard Woolley Sir Charles Leonard Woolley (17 April 1880 – 20 February 1960) was a British archaeologist best known for his Excavation (archaeology), excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia. He is recognized as one of the first "modern" archaeologists who excavat ...

, leading a joint expedition of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

and the

from 1922 to 1934 in the Sumerian city of Ur.

Translations

A. Leo Oppenheim Adolf Leo Oppenheim (7 June 1904 – 21 July 1974) was an American assyriologist. He was editor-in-charge of the '' Chicago Assyrian Dictionary'' of the Oriental Institute from 1955 to 1974 and John A. Wilson Professor of Oriental Studies at ...

translated several of the tablet's lines in a 1954 article for ''

Journal of the American Oriental Society The ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' is a quarterly academic journal published by the American Oriental Society since 1843. The editor in chief is Peri Bearman (Harvard University).Marc Van de Mieroop sent in a personal communication to Steven J. Garfinkle was published in 2010; a

book review A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review may be a primary source, an opinion piece, a summary review, or a scholarly view. B ...

by noted that this translation "is not always true to details". I. M. Diakonoff published a translation into Russian in 1990.

Other tablets

Other tablets have been found in the ruins believed to be Ea-nāṣir's dwelling. These include a letter from a man named Arbituram who complained he had not received his copper yet, while another said he was tired of receiving bad copper.

Legacy

The complaint tablet has become an

Internet meme An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...

due to its seemingly

anachronistic An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common typ ...

nature. It has been recognized by the Guinness World Records as the "oldest written customer complaint". In 2009, the tablet was stabilised with

Paraloid B-72 Paraloid B-72 or B-72 is a thermoplastic resin that was created by Rohm and Haas for use as a surface coating and as a vehicle for flexographic ink. Subsequently, it has found popular use as an adhesive by conservator-restorers, specifically in t ...

Notes

References

Bibliography

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External links

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3D scan of the tablet
* {{British Museum Clay tablets Mesopotamian literature Middle Eastern objects in the British Museum Customer service 18th-century BC works Copper industry Akkadian inscriptions Internet memes introduced in 2015 Archaeological discoveries in Iraq Letters (message)