9 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

World’s Oldest Customer Complaint “at 3800 Years Old”

When we are not satisfied with the product we receive, what almost all of us do is complain about the product. We do this sometimes by calling customer service and sometimes by applying to consumer complaint lines. We even announce it to everyone on social media.

It seems that although centuries have passed, people have not changed much. It is clear that our job is easier now, but there were determined people in the past. He carved his complaints on both sides of the clay tablet without feeling cold.

The world’s first known customer complaint was sent from Ur city, southern Mesopotamia about 3,800 years ago. (Tell al-Mukayyar in Iraq today)

The Old Babylonian tablet with inventory number 131236, found in the British museum in London, is a clay tablet from a man named Nanni telling ea-nasir that he complained that copper ore of the wrong quality was delivered and another shipment was misdirected and delayed.

Ea-nasir was a member of Alik Tilmun, a trade guild based in Dilmun. Archaeologists have discovered that he was a prominent copper merchant. Apparently, Ea-nasir was a pretty bad businessman and received lots of complaints from angry customers.

Letter from Nanni to Ea-nasir complaining after a gulf cruise that the wrong grade copper ore was delivered, misdirected, and another delivery delay. Source: British Museum.

The tablet was translated by the Asurologist A. Leo Oppenheim in Letters from Mesopotamia, which was out of print in 1967: The official, Business and Special Letters on Clay Tablates from Two Thousand Years and it was read as follows:

Addressing Ea-nasir, Nanni sends the following message:

When you arrived you said to me: “I will give Gimil-Sin (when it comes) good quality copper ingots.” Then you went but did not do what you promised me. You put in bad ingots before my envoy (Sit-Sin) and said, “If you want to get them, take them; if you don’t want to buy it, go! ” You said.

What are you taking for such a contempt for someone like me? I sent as messengers like ourselves to collect my purse with money (he was deposited with you), but by sending me your empty hand back to me several times and you despise me in enemy territory. Is there anyone among the traders who trade with Telmun who treated me this way? Just be disrespectful to my envoy! Because of a silver mina that I owe you (muttering), you are free to speak like this, I gave 1,080 pounds of copper to the palace in your name and Šumi-abum likewise, except for what we wrote on a sealed tablet to hide in Damascus’s temple, we was give 1,080 kilograms of copper.

How did you treat me for this copper? You hid my money bag from me in enemy territory; It is now up to you to fully restore (my money) to me.

Note that (from now on) I will not accept any non-good quality copper from you. I will select and take the ingots individually in my own garden and exercise my right to be rejected against you because you have insulted me.

– Leo Oppenheim, Letters From Mesopotamia.

This tablet found among the ruins of Ur was bought by the British Museum in 1953.

The tablet is 11.6 centimeters (4.6 inches) high, 5 centimeters (2.0 inches) wide, 2.6 centimeters (1.0 inches) thick, and slightly damaged. Translated from Akkadian.

Related Articles

Turkey to Present 12 Historic Artifacts to Istanbul Patriarch

10 August 2021

10 August 2021

The government said on Monday that Turkey will deliver stolen icons from ancient local churches to Istanbul’s Fener Greek Patriarch...

The place where John the Baptist was martyred

4 February 2022

4 February 2022

The infamous birthday banquet of Herod Antipas, which culminated in the beheading of St John the Baptist — a preacher...

Mystery of Knaresborough Roman hoard revealed by Newcastle experts

13 January 2024

13 January 2024

Archaeologists at Newcastle University have investigated one of the most unusual late-Roman metalware ever discovered in the British Isles. Although...

A unique tomb decorated with amber was discovered near Petrozavodsk

26 August 2021

26 August 2021

According to a press release from the Petrozavodsk State University a unique tomb was discovered on the western shore of...

In a Wisconsin lake, archaeologists discover a 1,200-year-old dugout canoe

6 November 2021

6 November 2021

Maritime archaeologists from the Wisconsin Historical Society have discovered a dugout wooden canoe in Lake Mendota, Wisconsin, USA. Carbon analysis...

Ancient Celtic Bone Pen Found in Southern Germany

14 December 2024

14 December 2024

From August to October this year, the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments (LAD) in the Stuttgart Regional Council...

New Hittite Tablet Reveals Luwian Songs on the Fall of Troy

1 April 2025

1 April 2025

The Trojan War is one of the most famous legends of Greek mythology, yet its historicity remains a topic of...

4,000-year-old settlement found during Balasore town India

9 July 2021

9 July 2021

A 4,000-year-old settlement and ancient artifacts have been discovered in the Balasore district, India. The Odisha Institute for Maritime and...

It may have been designed in Nevali Çori before Göbeklitepe was built

10 October 2021

10 October 2021

Göbeklitepe, Nevali Çori, Karahantepe, and Taştepeler, which will make us rethink what we know about human history, change the information...

An Avar Warrior Buried with Lamellar Armor and Equipment Discovered in Hungary

3 February 2024

3 February 2024

Archaeologists of the Déri Museum in Debrecen (eastern Hungary) found the tomb of a fully armed and with a complete...

Floor Mosaic of the Early Byzantine Period Unearthed in St Constantine and Helena Monastery Church in Ordu

12 August 2024

12 August 2024

Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism reported that an in-situ floor mosaic was found at the St Constantine...

An ancient necropolis and coins discovered in Kastel Fortress, a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina

11 November 2024

11 November 2024

During excavations at Kastel Fortress, the national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina, students and professors of Archaeology and History found...

An ancient Roman road has been discovered in the Venice Lagoon

24 July 2021

24 July 2021

Researchers discovered a Roman road submerged in the Venice Lagoon. The finding suggests that substantial communities may have existed in...

Archaeologists have discovered a 4,000-year-old burial ground and shell tool processing site in Taiwan

1 August 2022

1 August 2022

A 4,000-year-old cemetery and shell tool processing site has been discovered in Kenting National Park, Taiwan’s oldest and southernmost national...

Unusual construction material may be linked to the Tower of Babel

5 November 2021

5 November 2021

Archaeologists have recently discovered bitumen and mortar plastered onto a brick dating back to the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II. This...