Ea Nasir
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Basic Information

Ea-Nasir was a Sumerian trader living in Ur during the mid-18th century BCE, who belonged to a merchant's guild based out of Dilmun. He is famous today for being the subject of the oldest surviving complaint.

According to one of his customers, Nanni, he had promised to deliver good-quality copper ingots and taken cash up front. When Nanni's servant arrived, apparently after passing through enemy territory, he was presented with poor ingots and told to take them or leave them. The servant then returned, asking for a refund, and was refused and "treated with contempt" over an owed mina of silver. Nanni had also provided 1080 pounds of copper to the palace on Ea-Nasir's behalf, along with an unstated amount to the temple of Samash.

Nanni was apparently not the only person Ea-Nasir had treated this way. His house (yes, he kept a collection of business complaints in his house) also contained similar complaints about bad or undelivered copper from Arbituram, Appa, Imgur-Sim, Ilsu-Ellatsu, and Ili-Idinnam.

Sources

Game and Story Use

  • Certainly an "interesting" character for PCs to meet, especially if they need copper for some reason.
    • This sort of person is a common obstacle for a fedex quest
    • Given the way players tend to act, they may not restrain themselves to angry letters.
    • A more pro-active customer might well send PCs by way of a complaint.
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