Another blessed day of sun, hello.
Today, just after the shadows changed direction and the heat bore down, I saw something spectacular. I am unsure whether my actions were correct and would like judgement before I call on the gods for my own punishment.
A man of different assort appeared upon our dirt tracks leading to the riverside. He had with him a wheelcart full of possessions, slowly dragging them past our farms and to the edge of our structures.
A crowd had of course gathered and we watched cautiously as he approached. Danesh (the grain miller, not the seasonal hunter) stopped the man cautiously by raising an arm and throwing stone near him. I and many others yelled at Danesh as we treat guests respectfully in Adab.
Well, this is where it gets grey. Danesh halts but begins quickly pulling items from the handcart to show us! We gather around and watch as he pulls ingot after ingot of a shimmering white substance. It has been known that other societies have access to different metals (we have discovered in our occasional battles.)
Anyways it took three dozen of us looking at the bars of metal before an elder arrived and inspected them. He claimed it was ‘tin’ and demonstrated to us that it was quite brittle. He cracked it over his stone knife with just a few hits! Hah! I’d take our malleable copper any day over this stupid worthless ‘tin’.
This enraged the fraudster, and he screamed in his mother tounge and then shoved our elder into the dirt. Naturally, after this occured we took to fight and stoned the man to death.
AITA here? He was trying to sell us worthless metal and through his conveyence tried to indicate it would be good for tools. After he shoved our elder, stoning was the only move left, but was I in the wrong?
Also, we now have this ‘tin’ I guess, which is clearly inferior to our copper… What should we do with it?
Isaac the stonecutter
YTA: IANAL but Hammurabi 202 says:
202 If any one strike the body of a man higher in rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public.
It’s clear that your elder were in higher rank, but you just killed the scammer, while sixty blows with an ox-whip would be the correct punishment for his attack.
About the traveler’s lies, Hammurabi 107 can be related, while it’s not the exact case, it shows what repercussion a cheater like him should get:
107 If the merchant cheat the agent, in that as the latter has returned to him all that had been given him, but the merchant denies the receipt of what had been returned to him, then shall this agent convict the merchant before God and the judges, and if he still deny receiving what the agent had given him shall pay six times the sum to the agent.
So killing him was too much, you just had to beat him a bit and took most of his belongings. Your deeds were really uncivilized and I hope your gods will punish you with at least 2 years of drought.
Oh dear, you…might need to beg your gods forgiveness.
I’ve heard of other villages merging this tin with their copper to create sturdy tools and weapons, even ones capable of breaking bronze and wooden implements like shields. A marauder we captured last year called it “eyerown”, but I didn’t understand his language so please confirm with your elders.
Our village has such a traveling merchant we’ve traded with in the past who was able to get us a small amount of tin. We’ve only used it to produce elaborate bowls and chalices for our leader, at his request. He likes the way they shine in the sunlight.
merging this tin with their copper to create sturdy tools and weapons, even ones capable of breaking bronze
You may be slightly mistaken. I believe that merging tin with copper is the very way to create this “bronze” you speak of.
Our village also obtained some “eye-yearn” (similar to your eye-rown?) from a travelling merchant last year. We have been attempting to replicate it by merging varies quantities of copper, tin, and silver, but without success. We are beginning to suspect that it cannot be created through merging, and must be extracted with a process or ore unknown to us.
Did you make the appropriate blood sacrifice after you stoned him? If so, no, he’s definitely the asshole for being a barbarian.
You should throw the tin in the nearest river so you don’t accidentally contaminate your precious copper with it
