The Ancients – "The World’s Oldest Letters"

Podcast: The Ancients (History Hit)
Host: Tristan Hughes
Guest: Dr. Amanda Podany, Professor Emeritus of History, California State Polytechnic
Release Date: November 27, 2025
Theme: Exploring the world’s oldest known letters from Ancient Mesopotamia, with a focus on both the famous and everyday correspondences that have survived for millennia.

Episode Overview

This episode delves into the remarkable corpus of cuneiform letters from Ancient Mesopotamia—some of the oldest surviving written correspondence in world history, dating back nearly 4,000 years. Host Tristan Hughes and returning guest Dr. Amanda Podany discuss what these letters reveal about daily life, trade, bureaucracy, family, and the very human concerns of Bronze Age people. Special attention is given to the Internet-famous copper merchant Ea-Nasir, whose customer complaints have become meme fodder, as well as other poignant, witty, and downright relatable letters from the ancient world.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Letters in Bronze Age Mesopotamia

• Timeline: Focus is on 2000–1600 BCE, spanning the Old Babylonian period.
• Letter-writing Explosion: Although earlier letters exist (including from Egypt), Mesopotamia preserved tens of thousands, a uniquely vast corpus.
  • Dr. Podany: “For the period...from 2000 to 1600 BCE, there are about 12,000 in Mesopotamia. But there are many more if you count the ones found in Anatolia that were written by Mesopotamians.” (04:01)
• Wider Literacy: The letters shift from royal/elite to much broader society; family and merchants appear, reflecting everyday concerns.
• Medium and Language: Letters were written in Akkadian (a Semitic language) on small clay tablets using cuneiform. The average tablet was “the size of what you can put in the palm of your hand” (11:13).

Memorable Moment

• Dr. Podany on the immediacy of ancient letters:
  “They weren’t thinking, ‘I’m writing this for posterity.’ ...They were thinking, ‘I just need to get this particular shipment sent and the guy hasn’t shown up.’ That was the tone of them. And so they’re very immediate and they feel very real, and so they’re really, really fun.” (05:01)

2. Why Write Letters? Complaints and Urgency

• Everyday Needs: Many letters are urgent requests, explanations, or complaints—rarely sent without real motivation due to the difficulty and delay of delivery.
• Bronze Age ‘ASAP’:
  Tristan: “This is the Bronze Age equivalent of ASAP.” (07:23)
• Glimpse into Ancient Logistics: Letters reveal the networks of trade, transport, and communication in a surprisingly interconnected world.

3. The Story of Ea-Nasir: The World’s Oldest Customer Complaints

• Who Was Ea-Nasir?
  • A copper merchant of Ur, whose archive included 26 tablets, many customer complaints, famously discovered by Leonard Woolley.
  • Trading partner with Dilmun (modern Bahrain).
  • Dr. Podany: “One of the striking things about these letters is that one of them was from someone who seemed to be a very disgruntled customer who was upset about the quality of the copper he received.” (13:45)
• The Infamous Letter (17:04–20:37)
  • Written by Nanni, a business partner—mix of investor and disgruntled client.
  • Highlight:
    • “What do you take me for that you treat somebody like me with such contempt?...From now on, I will not accept here any copper from you that is not of fine quality...I shall exercise my right of rejection because you have treated me with contempt.” (18:23)
  • Relatability: The language is direct, indignant, and timeless.
• Contemporary Reception: Viral status as the “first customer complaint”; memes abound (“You are without doubt the worst Mesopotamian copper merchant I’ve ever heard of. But you have heard of me.”) (25:49)
• Scholarly Debates: Was Ea-Nasir a uniquely bad merchant or just the only one whose complaint archive survived? (20:51)

Quote

• Dr. Podany: “Six of these letters are complaint letters... I’m really puzzled about this because you’d think you’d just toss it, right?... My sense is we just don’t have enough evidence.” (20:51)

4. Memes, Misconceptions, and the Internet Legacy

• Memes: Host Tristan reads out several, including Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean riffs—highlighting the resonance of ancient frustrations.
• False Iconography: The commonly used “statue of Ea-Nasir” in memes is actually almost 1000 years older than the real person and unrelated.
  • Dr. Podany: “It would be like...showing a picture of someone today and you used an image of William the Conqueror. It has nothing to do with him at all.” (16:27)
• Universality of Complaint: The enduring, oddly cathartic experience of a customer complaint.
  • Dr. Podany: “What I think resonates for people is it’s just so human. We’ve all been there, right?” (27:38)

5. How Letters Were Delivered

• No Postal Service: Letters delivered by hand—either by scribe, the sender, or a chosen messenger, sometimes traveling great distances and across borders.
• No Street Addresses: Delivery relied on local knowledge. “...You were sent with a letter for Ea-Nasir in Ur, go find him. And there are no maps.” (29:03)
• Delays & Missed Connections: Letters sometimes missed their recipient due to travel time and lack of forwarding addresses. Regular correspondence was crucial for family/partners, e.g., “Ever since you went to Babylon, I haven’t heard from you. Would you tell me how you are doing?” (33:08)

6. Other Relatable Letters: Families, Fashion, and Fear

Letter from a Teen to His Mother (34:54)

• Complaint about Clothes:
  • “[...] from year to year, the clothes of the young gentlemen here become better, but you let my clothes get worse from year to year...while you, you do not love me.” (36:25)
• Analysis: A classic parent-teen guilt trip, compounded by the labor-intensive process of making clothes at home in the ancient world.

Letter about a Baby’s Welfare (39:29)

• Baby’s Travel Protests: Secretary writes to King Zimri-Lim objecting to putting a two-month-old baby on the road during winter—"He simply cannot travel. He suckles. Now, he is still a baby not yet weaned…” (41:18)

Letters from Diplomatic Daughters (43:22)

• Princess Kirum’s Plight: Series of letters from King Zimri-Lim’s daughter, deeply anxious, isolated, and pleading for rescue from a volatile husband. “[...] she’s so desperate, she says...‘send [the chariot] or I’m going to throw myself off the roof.’” (43:22)
• Reveals: Emotional nuance, family bonds, female agency as ‘ambassadors’ in their new homes.

7. Kings and Polite ‘Passive Aggressive’ Diplomacy

• Akhenaten as a Letter-Writing King: Known for promising extravagant gifts—gold bricks, statues—that did not materialize or were of poor quality.
• Diplomatic Tact: Kings had to maintain face and could not openly berate each other; thus developed a convention of polite, indirect, but pointed complaint.
  • “I know you sent this gold in good faith...but when I put this gold in the kiln, nothing came up.” (48:46)
• Contrast with Non-Elite: Unlike Nanni’s directness with Ea-Nasir, kings wrote in more civil, roundabout ways, sometimes breaking the convention for emphasis:
  “We are having to do what gentlemen don’t do, which is to be blunt...” (51:15)

8. Efficiency and Humanity of Ancient Communication

• Surprising Interconnectedness: “Communication was really efficient...there were a lot of networks of people, unwritten rules of civility, trust, and making sure a shipment was sent when you said you would.” (53:08)
• Not All Rude! Though complaint letters survive, most letters demonstrate trust, civility, and conscientiousness:
  “No, no, no, that’s not the case.” (53:08)

9. Relevance to Today & Academic Legacy

• Universal Human Experience: From customer service woes to nagging teenagers and anxious parents, these ancient letters feel strikingly modern.
• Preservation and Historical Value: Survival of non-elite, candid, and day-to-day correspondence makes Mesopotamia a uniquely “vibrant” window into early urban life.
  • Dr. Podany: “These documents that were not meant to survive...mean we can look at social history and economic history that are so difficult [to see] for most of the ancient world.” (55:52)

10. Further Reading

Dr. Amanda Podany’s books:

• Brotherhood of Kings (2010): Focused on diplomacy, trade; features Ea-Nasir.
• The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction: A concise guide.
• Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East: Exhaustive study drawing from letters for everyday life insights.

Notable Quotes & Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|---------|-------| | 05:01 | Amanda | “They weren’t thinking, ‘I’m writing this for posterity.’...They were thinking, ‘I just need to get this shipment sent and the guy hasn't shown up.’” | | 18:23 | Nanni (via Amanda) | “What do you take me for that you treat somebody like me with such contempt?...From now on, I will not accept here any copper from you that is not of fine quality...” | | 27:38 | Amanda | “What I think resonates for people is it’s just so human. We’ve all been there, right?” | | 36:25 | Letters from Mesopotamia | “From year to year, the clothes of the young gentlemen here become better, but you let my clothes get worse from year to year...while you, you do not love me.” | | 41:18 | Amanda (paraphrasing) | “He simply cannot travel. He suckles. Now, he is still a baby not yet weaned...” | | 51:15 | Amanda | “We are having to do what gentlemen don’t do, which is, to be blunt...” | | 53:08 | Amanda | “Communication was really efficient...a lot of human connection and unwritten rules of civility...” |

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction and Overview: 01:35–05:00
• Explosion of Letter Writing: 05:00–07:41
• The World of Ea-Nasir: 11:36–20:37
• Customer Complaints and Memes: 25:49–28:37
• How Letters Were Delivered: 29:03–34:00
• Relatable Letters—Family & Fashion: 34:54–39:29
• Children and Royal Welfare: 39:29–43:18
• Daughters, Diplomacy, and Distress: 43:22–48:29
• Kings and Politeness: 48:29–52:25
• Efficiency and Humanity: 53:08–55:38
• Further Reading and Final Reflections: 54:30–57:29

Final Thoughts

This episode demonstrates the deep humanity, complexity, and sophistication of ancient societies through their personal correspondence. Whether negotiating copper shipments, complaining to a parent, or navigating royal intrigue, the ancient authors of Mesopotamia speak to us across the millennia with voices that are vivid, witty, and surprisingly modern.

Dr. Amanda Podany’s engaging and insightful commentary, joined with Tristan Hughes’ enthusiasm, makes this a must-listen episode for ancient history fans, offering a true sense of continuity between past and present.