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Complaint tablet to Ea-nasir

Around 1750 BC. Deal between Nani and Ea-Nasir goes wrong. First formal complaint ?

Story

Around 1750 BC. Deal between Nani and Ea-Nasir goes wrong. Copper ingots sold to Nani are poor quality and he complains. It’s written in cuneiform, one of the oldest systems of writing from Mesopotamia and the form is a clay tablet.

Business transactions fail all the time. Quite simple nowadays, regulated by the EU customer protection law, insured by credit card companies, handled by your provider mediating the buy and sell who usually takes the risk for the failed delivery.

The difference in almost 4000 years is how such a problem is handled. Nowadays we have different technology, laws, processes to support such a scenario. “What” didn’t change. We won’t find out if Ea-Nasir knew about the poor copper quality upfront, or it was Nani rejecting the deal as he figured out that he has a better offer. The human behavior pattern remains the same and doesn’t change that fast at all.

  1. Deals go wrong
  2. People complain
  3. It already happened in 1750 BC.