The complaint tablet to Ea-nāṣir (
UET V 81)[1] is a
clay tablet that was sent to the ancient city-state
Ur, written
c. 1750 BCE. It is a complaint to a merchant named Ea-nāṣir from a customer named Nanni. Written in
Akkadiancuneiform, it may be the oldest known written
customer complaint. It is currently kept in the
British Museum.[2] In 2015, the tablet's content and Ea-nāṣir in particular gained popularity as an
online meme.[3][4][5]
Description
The tablet is 11.6 centimetres (4+9⁄16 in) high, 5 cm (1+15⁄16 in) wide, 2.6 cm (1 in) thick, and slightly damaged.[6]
Content
The tablet details that Ea-nāṣir travelled to
Dilmun to buy
copper and returned to sell it in
Mesopotamia. On one particular occasion, he had agreed to sell copper
ingots to Nanni. Nanni sent his servant with the money to complete the transaction.[8] The copper was considered by Nanni to be sub-standard[9] and was not accepted.
In response, Nanni created 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;[6] 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.
A. Leo Oppenheim translated several of the tablet's lines in a 1954 article for Journal of the American Oriental Society.[11] An English language translation of the tablet was made by
W. F. Leemans [
nl] in 1960;[12] Leemans's translation incorporated these lines which Oppenheim had translated as well as some input from
Fritz Rudolf Kraus [
de] on the meaning of a few lines.[13] Oppenheim published a full translation of the tablet himself in 1967,[9] unaware of any other translations of this tablet.[14] A translation inspired by that of
Marc Van de Mieroop sent in a personal communication to Steven J. Garfinkle was published in 2010;[15] a
book review by
Walter Farber [
de] noted that this translation "is not always true to details".[16] I. M. Diakonoff published a translation into Russian in 1990.[17]
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.[18][19]
Legacy
The complaint tablet has become an internet meme due to its seemingly
anachronistic nature, with Forbes stating that it bore resemblance to many modern
customer complaints for poor service in the modern era.[3][18][20]
^Figulla, H.H.; Martin, W.J., eds. (1953). Letters and Business Documents of the Old Babylonian Period. Ur Excavations: Texts. Vol. V. London, UK: British Museum Press. p. 5, Pl. XIV.
Diakonoff, I. M. (1990). Купец, мореплаватель, литейных дел мастер [A Merchant, Seafarer, and Copper Founder]. Люди города Ура [People of the City of Ur] (in Russian). Moscow: Akademija Nauk. pp. 97–125.
ISBN5-02-016568-9.
Farber, Walter (2012). "Opening the Tablet Box: Near Eastern Studies in Honor of Benjamin R. Foster". Review of Books. Journal of the American Oriental Society. 132 (2): 319–321.
doi:
10.7817/jameroriesoci.132.2.0319.
Garfinkle, Steven J. (2010). "Merchants and State Formation in Early Mesopotamia". In Melville, Sarah; Slotsky, Alice (eds.). Opening the Tablet Box: Near Eastern Studies in Honor of Benjamin R. Foster. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East. Vol. 42. Leiden: Brill. pp. 197–199.
doi:
10.1163/9789004186569_012.
ISBN978-90-04-18652-1.
Leemans, W.F. (1960). "Ur: Time of Rim-Sin". Foreign trade in the old Babylonian period as revealed by texts from southern Mesopotamia. Studia et Documenta ad Iura Orientis Antiqui Pertinentia. Vol. 6. Leiden, NL: E.J. Brill. pp. 36–55.
Oppenheim, A. L. (1954). "The Seafaring Merchants of Ur". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 74 (1): 6–17.
doi:
10.2307/595475.
JSTOR595475.
Rice, Michael (1994). "The Merchants of Dilmun: Ea-Nasir, the Dilmun Merchant". The Archaeology of the Arabian Gulf. pp. 276–280.
doi:
10.4324/9780203037263.
ISBN0-415-032687.