5 ms·

Complaint tablet to Ea-nasir

34 points by jelliclesfarm 6y ago

coldcode 6y ago
People haven't changed much in nearly 3K years. I wonder if he ever got a fair deal.
- jelliclesfarm 6y ago
  It’s really nuanced. 1. He takes on an implied insult because the servant wasn’t treated properly 2. It was actually Nanni who owed Ea-Nasir a Mina of silver. 3. Comparisons between others who traded with Ea-Nasir.. And finally: [..]Other tablets have been found in the ruins believed to be Ea-nasir's dwelling. These include a letter from a man named Arbituram who complained he had not received his copper yet, while another from Imgur-sin says he was tired of receiving bad copper.[..] Ea-Nasir seems like a chuckling evil genius ..he kept all the complaint tablets..probably read them and had the last laugh while enjoying a nightcap. I was very impressed by the stern tone of the complaint while weaving in personal grievances. Fascinating!!
mjd 6y ago
I was delighted to discover that AO3 has no fewer than _eleven_ fanfics about the complaint tablet: https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Ea-Nasir%20(Mesopotamian)/works https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Ea-Nasir%20(Mesopotamian)/w... Including at least one smutty one, which I thought was really funny: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9008380 https://archiveofourown.org/works/9008380 The Internet's a wonderful thing.
- jelliclesfarm 6y ago
  I enjoyed the comments in the smutty fanfic submission too! Looks like Ea-Nasir has fans!
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
mrstone 6y ago
The layout of that house is so strange. Why would it be designed like that?
- jelliclesfarm 6y ago
  Indeed. I had to look it up. This is for kids but I enjoyed the explanation: https://mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/homes.html https://mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/homes.html
- jelliclesfarm 6y ago
  https://www.livescience.com/28701-ancient-babylon-center-of-mesopotamian-civilization.html https://www.livescience.com/28701-ancient-babylon-center-of-... : also. This.. [..] "Most of the city was rebuilt by Saddam in the mid to late 1980s to recreate it as it was in the era of King Nebuchadnezzar, 600 B.C.," writes journalist Robert Galbraith in his book "Iraq: Eyewitness to War - A Photojournalist's Diary" (self-published, 2004). Galbraith reported from Iraq after the 2003 U.S. invasion and visited Babylon shortly after the U.S. occupation of Iraq began. Galbraith notes that around the time of the invasion the ancient city was looted and a group of U.S. Marines were eventually assigned to guard the site. Saddam Hussein had constructed a palace at Babylon that "looms over the city" but "is strikingly out of place," writes Galbraith. "It is a beautiful finely carved sandstone castle, and looks like an Arabian palace. But that's the problem; it is obtrusive, misplaced and tacky to the limit. It appears that Saddam tried to buy his way into the history books by building his monument overlooking the ancient city," writes Galbraith. Babylon would be turned into a U.S. military base. While this deterred some looting it caused damage to the ancient city and left more modern remains (including a basketball hoop) at the site that had to be cleaned up. After U.S. forces left, some cleanup and conservation work was done and the ancient city has been re-opened for tourists. In 2010 the U.S. government announced that it would spend $2 million to conserve Babylon's Ishtar Gate. [..]
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  1) entrances - prosaically, like a mud room. Ea-nasir's porters would've hung out here and kept riff raff out while announcing and carrying stuff in and out for desired guests. I don't know what old babylon was like for civil policing, but two entrances on different streets can be very useful in areas of unrest. In more peaceable environments, they can be decorated differently, so tradesmen, house servants/employees etc. use the back door while business partners, priests and politicians use the front. 2) a courtyard - compare roman architecture. Useful for light when one doesn't have electricity. In other cultures was used for rain water capture/storage. As 5 and 6 don't seem to have been stalls for household animals, they probably would've been running around here too. 3) stairs - I would bet residential was on the upper levels. (compare Bathsheba bathing) 4) lavatory - Ea-nasir was better equipped than the NCC-1701 Enterprise. 5) conference room? flunkies meet in the courtyard. Big deals with big shots get inked (clayed?) in room 5. (might it have had fancy beer and wine vessels at disposal?) 6) warehouse? when you've got a lot of copper ingots, best to store it as far away from the high traffic areas of the household as possible. And you're certainly not going to sleep out of earshot of the entrances to your copper store. (why was Boaz sleeping on the threshing-room floor in the book of Ruth? Because that's where his grain was.)

34 points by jelliclesfarm 6y ago

coldcode 6y ago

People haven't changed much in nearly 3K years. I wonder if he ever got a fair deal.

jelliclesfarm 6y ago
It’s really nuanced. 1. He takes on an implied insult because the servant wasn’t treated properly 2. It was actually Nanni who owed Ea-Nasir a Mina of silver. 3. Comparisons between others who traded with Ea-Nasir.. And finally: [..]Other tablets have been found in the ruins believed to be Ea-nasir's dwelling. These include a letter from a man named Arbituram who complained he had not received his copper yet, while another from Imgur-sin says he was tired of receiving bad copper.[..] Ea-Nasir seems like a chuckling evil genius ..he kept all the complaint tablets..probably read them and had the last laugh while enjoying a nightcap. I was very impressed by the stern tone of the complaint while weaving in personal grievances. Fascinating!!

mjd 6y ago

I was delighted to discover that AO3 has no fewer than _eleven_ fanfics about the complaint tablet: https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Ea-Nasir%20(Mesopotamian)/works https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Ea-Nasir%20(Mesopotamian)/w... Including at least one smutty one, which I thought was really funny: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9008380 https://archiveofourown.org/works/9008380 The Internet's a wonderful thing.

jelliclesfarm 6y ago
I enjoyed the comments in the smutty fanfic submission too! Looks like Ea-Nasir has fans!

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

mrstone 6y ago

The layout of that house is so strange. Why would it be designed like that?

jelliclesfarm 6y ago
Indeed. I had to look it up. This is for kids but I enjoyed the explanation: https://mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/homes.html https://mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/homes.html
jelliclesfarm 6y ago
https://www.livescience.com/28701-ancient-babylon-center-of-mesopotamian-civilization.html https://www.livescience.com/28701-ancient-babylon-center-of-... : also. This.. [..] "Most of the city was rebuilt by Saddam in the mid to late 1980s to recreate it as it was in the era of King Nebuchadnezzar, 600 B.C.," writes journalist Robert Galbraith in his book "Iraq: Eyewitness to War - A Photojournalist's Diary" (self-published, 2004). Galbraith reported from Iraq after the 2003 U.S. invasion and visited Babylon shortly after the U.S. occupation of Iraq began. Galbraith notes that around the time of the invasion the ancient city was looted and a group of U.S. Marines were eventually assigned to guard the site. Saddam Hussein had constructed a palace at Babylon that "looms over the city" but "is strikingly out of place," writes Galbraith. "It is a beautiful finely carved sandstone castle, and looks like an Arabian palace. But that's the problem; it is obtrusive, misplaced and tacky to the limit. It appears that Saddam tried to buy his way into the history books by building his monument overlooking the ancient city," writes Galbraith. Babylon would be turned into a U.S. military base. While this deterred some looting it caused damage to the ancient city and left more modern remains (including a basketball hoop) at the site that had to be cleaned up. After U.S. forces left, some cleanup and conservation work was done and the ancient city has been re-opened for tourists. In 2010 the U.S. government announced that it would spend $2 million to conserve Babylon's Ishtar Gate. [..]
082349872349872 6y ago
1) entrances - prosaically, like a mud room. Ea-nasir's porters would've hung out here and kept riff raff out while announcing and carrying stuff in and out for desired guests. I don't know what old babylon was like for civil policing, but two entrances on different streets can be very useful in areas of unrest. In more peaceable environments, they can be decorated differently, so tradesmen, house servants/employees etc. use the back door while business partners, priests and politicians use the front. 2) a courtyard - compare roman architecture. Useful for light when one doesn't have electricity. In other cultures was used for rain water capture/storage. As 5 and 6 don't seem to have been stalls for household animals, they probably would've been running around here too. 3) stairs - I would bet residential was on the upper levels. (compare Bathsheba bathing) 4) lavatory - Ea-nasir was better equipped than the NCC-1701 Enterprise. 5) conference room? flunkies meet in the courtyard. Big deals with big shots get inked (clayed?) in room 5. (might it have had fancy beer and wine vessels at disposal?) 6) warehouse? when you've got a lot of copper ingots, best to store it as far away from the high traffic areas of the household as possible. And you're certainly not going to sleep out of earshot of the entrances to your copper store. (why was Boaz sleeping on the threshing-room floor in the book of Ruth? Because that's where his grain was.)