
Complaint tablet to Ea-nasir - jelliclesfarm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complaint_tablet_to_Ea-nasir
======
mjd
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)/w...](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Ea-
Nasir%20\(Mesopotamian\)/works)

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
I enjoyed the comments in the smutty fanfic submission too!

Looks like Ea-Nasir has fans!

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

~~~
jelliclesfarm
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!!

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

~~~
082349872349872
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.)

