this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2026
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Really Shitty Copper
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A community dedicated to making fun of Ea-Nasir, a Sumerian merchant circa 1750 BC, who sold exceptionally poor quality copper.
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Not if they didn't know what it was. If I go buy a coffee and they give me some futuristic shit that isn't coffee, I would still be pissed.
It depends on what they were doing with it. Jewelry, yeah I'd be pissed. Mixing with tin or arsenic, oh you better believe I'd be pissed unless the steel didn't melt. Beating it into tools, nah we're good, and I want more of this weird silver copper.
Actually I think the biggest issue here is that it's wildly unlikely a Sumerian metalsmith is able to actually do anything with steel. Their forges aren't likely getting hot enough to really do much with iron, and steel is way harder and less malleable than bronze. Maybe they can sharpen it, and depending on the shape they might be able to cold work it. It looks like iron forging was a few centuries away in Ea Nasir's time, and it required better tools, techniques, and forges.
Yeah, but you can cast bronze fairly easily, while casting iron is more of an AD technology. Early modern, if you're European. Traditionally you don't even let it melt while smelting.
Blacksmithing with wrought iron is way harder than working with something like bronze. There's slag in it either just from oxidising or from the solid smelting (bloomery) process, and so it has a kind of "grain" that builds up over time. If you don't account for that your sword or plough will be trash.
It also rusts, is softer than bronze (even as most steels) and not necessarily stronger. The only real advantage is that it's common and doesn't require a trade network for rare elements, which is why it didn't fully catch on in the Near Eastern world until after the bronze age collapse.
Yeah, that last point is huge. Bronze weapons and armor were way better than iron weapons and armor, but 500 warriors equipped in iron are better than 50 equipped in bronze.
I dunno. If I ordered a coffee and they gave me dippin dots we might be talking
Fair.
But what if that futuristic shit gave you more energy without the caffeine crash and you also best poop possible from drinking it?
What if it isn't something I drink? Like giving Cro-magnon man a raspberry pi, they wouldn't know how to use it.
(Side note, I love these types of arguments. I am unironically enjoying this very much)
Even if it is something you drink, the futuristic beverage may be something that's more like a liquid all day amphetamine. A culture coming from coffee or tea where a cups are consumed mostly in the morning, but possibly at several points throughout the day may find themselves struggling with the idea that they're supposed to take a small sip whenever their focus wanes or to take it early in the day and not sip on a beverage over the course of the day.
This is akin to handing Ada Lovelace a raspberry pi and maybe the electric equipment to turn it on without frying it. Theoretically she might be able to do something with it, and she may very well be the best person of her time to do something with it. But without input devices and other electronics like lights or monitors or any other output devices, what you've given is a world of possibility without the capacity to do anything with it.