Imagine how pissed you have to be to engrave a rock
Ok but there was this guy called Ea-nasir who was a total crook and would actually cheat people ought of good copper and sell them shit instead. The amount of correspondences complaining to and about this guy are HILARIOUS.
Are you telling me we know about a specific guy who lived 5000 years ago, by name, because he was a huge asshole
More like 4000 years ago but yes. Ea-nasir and his dodgy business deals.
And we haven’t even touched on the true hilarity of the situation yet. Consider two additional facts:
He wasn’t just into copper trading. There are letters complaining about Ea-nasir’s business practices with respect to everything from kitchenwares to real estate speculation to second-hand clothing. The guy was everywhere.
The majority of the surviving correspondences regarding Ea-nasir were recovered from one particular room in a building that is believed to have been Ea-nasir’s own house.
Like, these are clay tablets. They’re bulky, fragile, and difficult to store. They typically weren’t kept long-term unless they contained financial records or other vital information (which is why we have huge reams of financial data about ancient Babylon in spite of how little we know about the actual culture: most of the surviving tablets are commercial inventories, bills of sale, etc.).
But this guy, this Ea-nasir, he kept all of his angry letters - hundreds of them - and meticulously filed and preserved them in a dedicated room in his house. What kind of guy does that?
1) Put four pills on each side. The heavier side has the pill. Take the four pills from the heavier side.
2) Put two of the potential pills on each side of the scale. The heavier side has the poison pill.
3) Take the two potential pills. Swallow one. If you survive, you are holding the poison pill. If you die, you have eaten the poisoned pill. Either way you will find out which one it is for sure
1) Weigh 6 of them, 3 on each side
2a) If both sides are equal, weigh the 2 you didn’t use before.
2b) If one side was heavier, pick 2 of the 3 and weigh them. Heavier one is poisoned. If they’re even, it’s the 3rd.
Well, all I can say is that we all have our methods and some of us are more willing to take a risk in the name of science
4. Slytherin: host peace talks and crumble the pills into important people’s drinks. Sell weapons to all sides of the ensuing conflict. 5. Hufflepuff: Take the pills to a pill take-back day. Lobby powerfully for better safety regulations in the drug industry. Feed the Gryffindor activated charcoal and pump his stomach, the poor lamb.
Grind them all up, mix them into a solution that dilutes them beyond their molar limit. Sell bottles of the dilution as a miracle cure for whatever you feel like. Profit.
@belovedbright, you forgot the step where you buy the head of the FDA a lifetime free blowjob card at his local brothel, so he’ll green-stamp your product.
Go to the person who made the pills and say “I will give you this nice weighted scale if you tell me which pill is poisoned.” (Use #1)
If they say no, brain them with the scale (Use #2) and leg it.